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1 



'URIOUS MYTHS 



OF 



THE MIDDLE AGES, 



BY 



S^ BARING-GOULD, M.A. 

flECEIVED. < 



BOSTON: 
ROBERTS BROTHERS. 

1882. 



a-P 






r 



\ 



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By Transfer 

JUN 26 1917 



T'^*-"'ERSiTY Press: 
John Wilson & Son, ^^ambridge. 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE 

The Wandering Jew i 

pRESTER John 30 

The Divining Rod 54 

The Seven Sleepers of Ephesus 92 

William Tell no 

The Dog Gellert 132 

Tailed Men 144 

Antichrist and Pope Joan 160 

The Man in the Moon . . . ! 189 

The Mountain of Venus 207 

St. George 221 

The Legend of the Cross 270 

ScHAMiR 313 

Melusina 343 

The Fortunate Isles 394 

The Knight of the Swan 430 






MEDIEVAL MYTHSJ^ 



®l)e tDanbering 3m. 

WHO, that has looked on Gustave Dore's mar- 
vellous illustrations to this wild legend, can 
forget the impression they made upon his im- 
agination? 

I do not refer to the first illustration as striking, 
where the Jewish shoemaker is refusing to suffer 
the cross-laden Savior to rest a moment on his 
door-step, and is receiving with scornful lip the 
judgment to wander restless till the Second Coming 
of that same Redeemer. But I refer rather to the 
second, which represents the Jew, after the lapse 
of ages, bowed beneath the burden of the curse, 
worn with unrelieved toil, wearied with ceaseless 
travelling, trudging onward at the last lights of 
evening, when a rayless night of unabating rain is 
I (1) 



2 The Wandering yew. 

creeping on, along a sloppy path between dripping 
bushes ; and suddenly he comes over against a way- 
side crucifix, on which the white glare of departing 
daylight falls, to throw it into ghastly relief against 
the pitch-black rain-clouds. For a moment we see 
the w^orking of the miserable shoemaker's mind. 
We feel that he is recalling the tragedy of the first 
Good Friday, and his head hangs heavier on his 
breast, as he recalls the part he had taken in that 
awful catastrophe. 

Or, is that other illustration more remarkable, 
where the wanderer is amongst the Alps, at the 
brink of a hideous chasm ; and seeing in the con- 
torted pine-branches the ever-haunting scene of 
the Via Dolorosa, he is lured to cast himself into 
that black gulf in quest of rest, — when an angel 
flashes out of the gloom with the sword of flame 
turning every way, keeping him back from what 
would be to him a Paradise indeed, the repose of 
Death ? 

Or, that last scene, when the trumpet sounds 
and earth is shivering to its foundations, the fire 
is bubbling forth through the rents in its surface, 
and the dead are coming together flesh to flesh, 



The Wandering yew. 3 

and bone to bone, and muscle to muscle — then 
the weary man sits down and casts off his shoes ! 
Strange sights are around him, he sees them not; 
strange sounds assail his ears, he hears but one — 
the trumpet-note which gives the signal for him to 
stay his wanderings and rest his weary feet. 

I can linger over those noble woodcuts, and learn 
from them something new each time that I study 
them ; they are picture-poems full of latent depths 
of thought. And now let us to the history of this 
most thrilling of all mediaeval myths, if a myth. 

If a myth, I say, for who can say for certain that 
it is not true ? " Verily I say unto you. There 
be some standing here, which shall not taste of 
death till they see the Son of Man coming in His 
kingdom," * are our Lord's words, which I can 
hardly think apply to the destruction of Jerusalem, 
as commentators explain it to escape the difficulty. 
That some should live to see Jerusalem destroyed 
was not very surprising, and hardly needed the 
emphatic Verily which Christ only used when 
speaking something of peculiarly solemn or mysteri- 
ous import. 

* Matt. xvi. 28. Mark ix. i. 



4 The Wandering Jew, 

Besides, St. Luke's account manifestly refers the 
coming in the kingdom to the Judgment, for the 
saying stands as follows : '' Whosoever shall be 
ashamed of Me, and of My words, of him shall 
the Son of Man be ashamed, when He shall come 
in His own glory, and in His Father's, and of the 
holy angels. But I tell you of a truth, there be 
some standing here, which shall not taste of death 
till they see the kingdom of God." * 

There can, I think, be no doubt in the mind of 
an unprejudiced person that the words of our Lord 
do imply that some one or more of those then 
living should not die till He came again. I do not 
mean to insist on the literal signification, but I 
plead that there is no improbability in our Lord's 
words being fulfilled to the letter. That the cir- 
cumstance is unrecorded in the Gospels is no 
evidence that it did not take place, for we are 
expressly told, " Many other signs truly did Jesus 
in the presence of His disciples, which are not 
written in this book;"t and again, "There are 
also many other things which Jesus did, the which, 
ii they should be written every one, I suppose that 

* Luke ix. ^ t John xx. 30. 



The Wandering Jew, 5 

even the world itself could not contain the books 
that should be written." * 

We may remember also the mysterious witnesses 
who are to appear in the last eventful days of the 
world's history and bear testimony to the Gospel 
truth before the antichristian world. One of these 
has been often conjectured to be St. John the 
Evangelist, of whom Christ said to Peter, " If 
I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to 
thee?" 

The historical evidence on which the tale rests 
is, however, too slender for us to admit for it more 
than the barest claim to be more than myth. The 
names and the circumstances connected with the 
Jew and his doom vary in every account, and the 
only point upon which all coincide is, that such an 
individual exists in an undying condition, .i^^^nder- 
ing over the face of the earth, seeking rest and 
finding none. 

The earliest extant mention of the Wandering 
Jew is to be found in the book of the chronicles 
of the Abbey of St. Albans, which was copied and 
continued by Matthew Paris. He records that in 

* John xxi. 25. 



6 The Wandering yeiv^ 

the year 1228, "a certain Archbishop of Armenia 
the Greater came on a j^ilgrimage to England to 
see the relics of the saints, and visit the sacred 
places in the kingdom, as he had done in others ; 
he also produced letters of recommendation from 
his Holiness the Pope, to the religious and the 
prelates of the churches, in which they were en- 
joined to receive and entertain him with due rever 
ence and honor. On his arrival, he came to St. 
Albans, where he was received with all respect 
by the abbot and the monks ; and at this place, 
being fatigued with his journey, he remained some 
days to rest himself and his followers, and a con- 
versation took place between him and the inhabit 
ants of the convent, by means of their interpreters, 
duririg which he made many inquiries relating to 
the religion and religious observances of this coun- 
try, and told many strange things concerning the 
countries of the East. In the course of conversa- 
tion he was asked whether he had ever seen or 
heard any thing of Joseph, a man of whom there 
was much talk in the world, who, when our Lord 
suffered, was present and spoke to Him, and who 
is still alive, in evidence of the Christian faith ; in 



The Wandering yew. 7 

reply to which, a knight in his retinue, who was 
his interpreter, rephed, speaking in French, ' My 
lord well knows that man, and a little before he 
took his way to the western countries, the said 
Joseph ate at the table of my lord the Archbishop 
of Armenia, and he has often seen and conversed 
with him.' 

"He was then asked about what had passed be- 
tween Christ and the said Joseph ; to which he 
replied, ' At the time of the passion of Jesus Christ, 
He was seized by the Jews, and led into the hall 
of judgment before Pilate, the governor, that He 
might be judged by him on the accusation of the 
Jews ; and Pilate, finding no fault for which he 
might sentence Him to death, said unto them, 
" Take Him and judge Him according to your 
law ; " the shouts of the Jews, however, increasing, 
he, at their request, released unto them Barabbas, 
and delivered Jesus to them to be crucified. When, 
therefore, the Jews were dragging Jesus forth, and 
had reached the door, Cartaphilus, a porter of the 
hall in Pilate's service, as Jesus was going out of 
the door, impiously struck Him on the back with 
his hand, and said in mockery, '' Go quicker, 



<ks "■ ' "^'*^^«*^^" % 



Jesus, go quicker; wliy do you loiter?" and Jesus, 
looking back on him with a severe countenance, 
said to him, " I am going, and you shall wait till 
I return." And according as our Lord said, this 
Cartaphilus is still awaiting His return. At the 
time of our Lord's suffering he was thirty years 
old, and when he attains the age of a hundred 
years, he always returns to the same age as he 
was when our Lord suffered. After Christ's death, 
when the Catholic faith gained ground, this Cartaph- 
ilus was baptized by Ananias (who also baptized 
the Apostle Paul), and was called Joseph. He 
dwells in one or other divisions of Armenia, and in 
divers Eastern countries, passing his time amongst 
the bishops and other prelates of the Church ; he 
is a man of holy conversation, and religious ; a 
man of few words, and very circumspect in his 
behavior ; for he does not speak at all unless 
when questioned by the bishops and religious ; 
and then he relates the events of olden times, and 
speaks of things w^hich occurred at the suffering 
and resurrection of our Lord, and of the wit- 
nesses of the I'esurrection, namely, of those who 
rose with Christ, and went into the holy city, and 



The Wandering Jew. 9 

appeared unto men. He also tells of the creed of 
the Apostles, and of their separation and preach- 
ing. And all this he relates without smiling, or 
levity of conversation, as one who is well practised 
in sorrow and the fear of God, always looking for- 
ward w^ith dread to the coming of Jesus Christ, lest 
at the Last Judgment he should find him in anger 
whom, when on his way to death, he had provoked 
to just vengeance. Numbers came to him from dif- 
ferent parts of the world, enjoying his society ar 
conversation ; and to them, if they are men of autho 
ity, he explains all doubts on the matters on which I 
is questioned. He refuses all gifts that are ofTen 
him, being content with slight food and clothing,' 
Much about the same date, Philip Mouskes, afte 
wards Bishop of Tournay, wrote his rhymed chron- 
icle (1342), which contams a similar account of the 
Jew, derived from the same Armenian prelate : — 

** Adonques vint un arceveskes 
De 9a mer, plains de bonnes teques 
Par samblant, et fut d'Armenie," 

and this man, having visited the shrine of " vSt. 
Tumas de Kantorbire," and then having paid his 
devotions at " Monsigour St. Jake," he went on to 



lo The Wandering Jew* 

Cologne to see the heads of the three kings. The 
version told in the Netherlands much resembled that 
related at St. Albans, only that the Jew, seeing the 
people dragging Christ to his death, exclaims, — 



Then 



" Atendes moi ! g'i vois, 
S'iert mis le faus profete en crois.' 

" Le vrais Dieux se regarda, 
Et li a dit qu'e n'i tarda, 
Icist ne t'atenderontpas, 
Mais saces, tu m'atenderas.** 



We hear no more of the wandering Jew till the 
sixteenth century, when we hear first of him in a 
casual manner, as assisting a weaver, Kokot, at the 
royal palace in Bohemia (1505), to find a treasure 
which had been secreted by the great-grandfather of 
Kokot, sixty years before, at which time the Jew was 
present. He then had the appearance of being a 
man of seventy years.* 

Curiously enough, we next hear of him in the 
East, where he is confounded with the prophet 
Elijah. Early in the century he appeared to Fad 
hilah, under peculiar circumstances. 

* Gubitz, Gesellsch. 1845, No. 18. 



The Wandering Jew, ii 

After the Arabs had captured the city of Elvan, 
Fadhilah, at the head of three hundred horsemen, 
pitched his tents, late in the evening, between two 
mountains. Fadhilah, having begun his evening 
prayer with a loud voice, heard the words " Allah 
akbar " (God is great) repeated distinctly, and each 
word of his prayer was followed in a similar man- 
ner. Fadhilah, not believing this to be the result 
of an echo, was much astonished, and cried out, 
" O thou ! whether thou art of the angel ranks, or 
whether thou art of some other order of spirits, it is 
well ; the power of God be with thee ; but if thou 
art a man, then let mine eyes light upon thee, that I 
may rejoice in thy presence and society." Scarcely 
had he spoken these words, before an aged man, 
with bald head, stood before him, holding a staff in 
his hand, and much resembling a dervish in appear- 
ance. After having courteously saluted him, Fadhi- 
lah asked the old man who he was. Thereupon the 
stranger answered, '' Bassi Hadhret Issa, I am here 
by command of the Lord Jesus, who has left me in 
this world, that I may live therein until he comes a 
second time to earth. I wait for this Lord, who is 
the Fountain of Happiness, and in obedience to his 



12 The Wandering Jew, 

command I dwell behind yon mountain." When 
Fadhilah heard these words, he asked when the Lord 
Jesus would appear ; and the old man replied that his 
appearing would be at the end of the world, at the 
Last Judgment. But this only increased Fadhilah's 
curiosity, so that he inquired the signs of the approach 
of the end of all things, whereupon Zerib Bar Elia 
gave him an account of general, social, and moral 
dissolution, which would be the climax of this 
world's history.* 

In 1547 he was seen in Europe, if we are to believe 
the following narration : — 

" Paul von Eitzen, doctor of the Holy Scriptures, 
and Bishop of Schleswig,! related as true for some 
years past, that when he was young, having studied 
at Wittemberg, he returned home to his parents in 
Hamburg in the winter of the year 1547? ^^^^ \h^i on 
the following Sunday, in church, he observed a tall 
man, with his hair hanging over his shoulders, stand- 
ing barefoot, during the sermon, over against the 

* Herbelot, Bibl. Orient, iii. p. 607. 

t Paul V. Eitzen was born January 25, 1522, at Hamburg; 
in 1562 he was appointed chief preacher for Schleswig, and 
died February 25, 1598. (Greve, Memor. P. ab. Eitzen. 
Haiiib. 1844.) 



The Wandering Jew. 13 

pulpit, listening with deepest attention to the dis- 
course, and, whenever the name of Jesus was men- 
tioned, bowing himself profoundly and humbly, with 
sighs and beating of the breast. He had no other 
clothing, in the bitter cold of the winter, except a pair 
of hose which were in tatters about his feet, and a 
coat with a girdle which reached to his feet ; and his 
general appearance w^as that of a man of fifty years. 
And many people, some of high degree and title, 
have seen this same man in England, France, Italy, 
Hungary, Persia, Spain, Poland, Moscow, Lapland, 
Sweden, Denmark, Scotland, and other places. 

" Every one wondered over the man. Now, after 
the sermon, the said Doctor inquired diligently where 
the stranger was to be found ; and when he had 
sought him out, he inquired of him privately whence 
he came, and how long that winter he had been in 
the place. Thereupon he replied, modestly, that he 
was a Jew by birth, a native of Jerusalem, by name 
Ahasverus, by trade a shoemaker ; he had been pres- 
ent at the crucifixion of Christ, and had lived ever 
since, travelling through various lands and cities, the 
which he substantiated by accounts he gave ; he 
related also the circumstances of Christ's transfer- 



14 The Wandering Jew, 



1 



ence from Pilate to Herod, and the final crucifixion, 
together with other details not recorded in the 
Evangelists and historians ; he gave accounts of the 
changes of government in many countries, especially 
of the East, through several centuries; and moreover 
he detailed the labors and deaths of the holy Apostles 
of Christ most circumstantially. 

" Now when Doctor Paul v. Eitzen heard this with 
profound astonishment, on account of its incredible 
novelty, he inquired further, in order that he might 
obtain more accurate information. Then the man 
answered, that he had lived in Jerusalem at the time 
of the crucifixion of Christ, whom he had regarded as 
a deceiver of the people, and a heretic ; he had seen 
Him with his own eyes, and had done his best, along 
with others, to bring this deceiver, as he regarded 
Him, to justice, and to have Him put out of the way. 
When the sentence had been pronounced by Pilate, 
Christ was about to be dragged past his house ; then 
he ran home, and called together his household to have 
a look at Christ, and see what sort of a person He was. 

" This having been done, he had his little child on 
his arm, and was standing in his doorway, to have a 
sight of the Lord Jesus Christ. 



The Wandering yew. 15 

" As, then, Christ was led by, bowed under the 
weight of the heavy cross, He tried to rest a little, and 
stood still a moment ; but the shoemaker, in zeal and 
rage, and for the sake of obtaining credit among the 
other Jews, drove the Lord Christ forward, and told 
Him to hasten on His way. Jesus, obeying, looked at' 
him, and said, ' I shall stand and rest, but thou shalt 
go till the last day/ At these words the man set down 
the child ; and, unable to remain where he was, he 
followed Christ, and saw how cruelly He was cruci- 
fied, how He suffered, how He died. As soon as this 
had taken place, it came upon him suddenly that he 
could no more return to Jerusalem, nor see again his 
wife and child, but must go forth into foreign lands, 
one after another, like a mournful pilgrim. Now, 
when, years after, he returned to Jerusalem, he found 
it ruined and utterly razed, so that not one stone was 
left standing on another ; and he could not recognize 
former localities. 

'' He believes that it is God's purpose, in thus 
driving him about in miserable life, and preserving 
him undying, to present him before the Jews at the 
end, as a living token, so that the godless and unbe- 
lieving may remember the death of Christ, and be 



1 6 The Wandering Jew. 

turned to repentance. For his part he would well 
rejoice were God in heaven to release him from this 
vale of tears. After this conversation, Doctor Paul v. 
Eitzen, along with the rector of the school of Ham- 
burg, who was well read in history, and a traveller, 
questioned him about events which had taken place 
in the East since the death of Christ, and he was able 
to give them much information on many ancient 
matters ; so that it was impossible not to be convinced 
of the truth of his story, and to see that what seems 
impossible with men is, after all, possible with God. 

" Since the Jew has had his life extended, he has 
become silent and reserved, and only answers direct 
questions. When invited to become any one's guest, 
he eats little, and drinks in great moderation ; then 
hurries on, never remaining long in one place. 
When at Hamburg, Dantzig, and elsewhere, money 
has been offered him, he never took more than two 
skillings (fourpence, one farthing), and at once distrib- 
uted it to the poor, as token that he needed no money, 
for God would provide for him, as he rued the sins 
he had committed in ignorance. 

"During the period of his stay in Hamburg and 
Dantzig he was never seen to laugh. In whatever 



The ]Vandering yew. 17 

land he travelled he spoke its language, and when 
he spoke Saxon, it was like a native Saxon. Many 
people came from different places to Hamburg and 
Dantzig in order to see and hear this man, and were 
convinced that the providence of God was exercised 
in this individual in a very remarkable manner. He 
gladly listened to God's word, or heard it spoken of 
always with great gravity and compunction, and he 
ever reverenced with sighs the pronunciation of the 
name of God, or of Jesus Christ, and could not endure 
to hear curses ; but whenever he heard any one swear 
by God's death or pains, he waxed indignant, and ex^ 
claimed, with vehemence and with sighs, ' Wretched 
man and miserable creature, thus to misuse the name 
of thy Lord and God, and His bitter sufferings and 
passion. Hadst thou seen, as I have, how heavy and 
bitter were the pangs and wounds of thy Lord, en- 
dured for thee and for me, thou wouldst rather under- 
go great pain thyself than thus take His sacred name 
in vain ! ' 

" Such is the account given to me by Doctor Paul 
von Eitzen, with many circumstantial proofs, and 
corroborated by certain of my own old acquaint- 
2 



l8 The Wandering Jew. 

ances who saw this same individual with their own 
eyes in Hamburg. 

V^ " In the year 1575 the Secretary Christopher 
Krause, and Master Jacob von Holstein, legates to 
the Court of Spain, and afterwards sent into the 
Netherlands to pay the soldiers serving his Majesty 
in that country, related on their return home to 
Schleswig, and confirmed with solemn oaths, that 
they had come across the same mysterious individual 
at Madrid in Spain, in appearance, manner of life, 
habits, clothing, just the same as he had appeared in 
Hamburg. They said that they had spoken with 
him, and that many people of all classes had con- 
versed with him, and found him to speak good Span- 
ish. In the year 1599, in December, a reliable per- 
son wrote from Brunswick to Strasburg that the same 
mentioned strange person had been seen alive at 
Vienna in Austria, and that he had started for Poland 
and Dantzig ; and that he purposed going on to Mos- 
cow. This Ahasverus was at Lubeck in 1601, also 
about the same date in Revel in Livonia, and in 
Cracow in Poland. In Moscow he was seen of mar y 
and spoken to by many. 

'' What thoughtful. God-fearing persons are to think 



The Wandeicing Jew. 19 

of the said person, Is at their option. God's works 
are v/ondrous and past finding out, and are manifested 
day by day, only to be revealed in full at the last great 
day of account. 

"Dated, Revel, August ist, 1613. 
" D. W. 

" Chrysostomus Duduloeus, 
" Westphalus." 

The statement that the Wandering Jew appeared 
in Lubeck in i6oi, does not tally with the more pre- 
cise chronicle of Henricus Bangert, which gives : 
" Die 14 Januarii Anno MDCIII., adnotatum reliquit 
Lubecae fuisse Judseum ilium immortalem, qui se 
Christi crucifixioni interfuisse affirmavit." * 

In 1604 he seems to have appeared in Paris. Ru- 
dolph Botoreus says, under this date, '' I fear lest I be 
accused of giving ear to old wives' fables, if I insert 
in these pages what is reported all over Europe of 
the Jew, coeval with the Savior Christ ; however, 
nothing is more common, and our popular histories 

* Henr. Bangert, Comment, de Ortu, Vita, et Excessu 
Coleri, I. Cti. Lubec. 



20 The Wandering yew. 

have not scrupled to assert it. Following the lead 
of those who wrote our annals, I may say that he 
who appeared not in one century only, in Spain," 
Italy, and Germany, was also in this year seen and 
recognized as the same individual who had appeared 
in Hamburg, anno MDLXVI. The common people, 
bold in spreading reports, relate many things of him ; 
and this I allude to, lest anything should be left 
unsaid." * 

J. C. Bulenger puts the date of the Hamburg visit 
earlier. " It was reported at this time that a Jew of 
the time of Christ was wandering without food and 
drink, having for a thousand and odd years been a 
vagabond and outcast, condemned by God to rove, 
because he, of that generation of vipers, was the first 
to cry out for the crucifixion of Christ and the release 
of Barabbas ; and also because soon after, when 
Christ, panting under the burden of the rood, sought 
to rest before his workshop (he was a cobbler), the 
fellow ordered Him off with acerbity. Thereupon 
Christ replied, ' Because thou grudgest Me such a 
moment of rest, I shall enter into My rest, but thou 
shalt wander restless.' At once, frantic and agitated, 

* R. Botoreus, Cornm. Histor. lii. p. 305. 



The Wandering Jew, 21 

he fled through the whole earth, and on the same 
account to this day he journeys through the world. 
It was this person who was seen in Hamburg in 
MDLXIV. Credat Judaeus Apella ! / did not see 
him, or hear anything authentic concerning him, at 
that time when I was in Paris." * 

A curious little book,t written against the quackery 
of Paracelsus, by Leonard Doldius, a Nurnberg phy- 
sician, and translated into Latin and augmented, by 
Andreas Libavius, doctor and physician of Roten- 
burg, alludes to the same story, and gives the Jew a 
new name nowhere else met with. After having 
referred to a report that Paracelsus was not dead, but 
was seated alive, asleep or napping, in his sepulchre 
at Strasburg, preserved from death by some of his 
specifics, Labavius declares that he would sooner be- 
lieve in the old man, the Jev/, Ahasverus, wandering 
over the world, called by some Buttadaeus, and other- 
wise, again, by others. 

He is said to have appeared in Naumburg, but 
the date is not given ; he was noticed in church, 
listening to the sermon. After the service he was 

* J. C. Bulenger, Historia sui Temporis, p. 357. 
t Praxis Alchjmise. Francfurti, MDCIV. 8vo. 



22 The Wandering Jew. 

questioned, and he related bis story. On this occa- 
sion he received presents from the burgers.* In 1633 
he was again in Hamburg, -j* In the year 1640, two 
citizens, living in the Gerberstrasse, in Brussels, were 
walking in the Sonian wood, when they encountered 
an aged man, whose clothes were in tatters and of 
an antiquated appearance. They invited him to go 
with them to a house of refreshment, and he went 
with them, but would not seat himself, remaining on 
foot to drink. When he came before the doors with 
the two burgers, he told them a great deal ; but they 
were mostly stories of events which had happened 
many hundred years before. Hence the burgers 
gathered that their companion was Isaac Laquedem, 
the Jew who had refused to permit our Blessed Lord 
to rest for a moment at his door-step, and they left him 
full of terror. In 1642 he is reported to have visited 
Leipzig. On the 22d July, 1721, he appeared at the 
gates of the city of Munich. \ About the end of the 
seventeenth century or the beginning of the eighteenth, 
an impostor, calling himself the Wandering Jew, at- 

♦ Mitternacht, Diss, in Johann. xxi. 19. 

t Mitternacht, ut supra. 

X Hormajr, Taschenbuch, 1834, P- 216. 



The Wandering Jew, 23 

tracted attention in England, and was listened to by 
the ignorant, and despised by the educated. He, 
however, managed to thrust himself into the notice 
of the nobility, who, half in jest, half in curiosity, 
questioned him, and paid him as they might a juggler. 
He declared that he had been an officer of the Sanhe- 
drim, and that he had struck Christ as he left the 
judgment hall of Pilate. He remembered all the 
Apostles, and described the'r personal appearance, 
their clothes, and their peculiarities. He spoke many 
languages, claimed the po'^/er of healing the sick, 
and asserted that he had travelled nearly all over the 
world. Those who heard him were perplexed by his 
familiarity with foreign tongues and places. Oxford 
and Cambridge sent professors to question him, and 
to discover the imposition, if any. An English noble- 
man conversed with him in Arabic. The mysterious 
stranger told his questioner in that language that 
historical works v;ere not to be relied upon. And 
on being asked his opinion of Mahomet, he replied 
that he had been acquainted with the father of the 
prophet, and that he dwelt at Ormuz. As for 
Mahomet, he believed him to have been a man of 
intelligence ; onv^.e when he heard the prophet deny 



24 The Wande7'ing Jew, ' 

that Christ was crucified, he answered abruptly by- 
telling him he was a witness to the truth of that 
event. He related also that he was in Rome when 
Nero set it on fire ; he had known Saladin, Tamer- 
lane, Bajazeth, Eterlane, and could give minute 
details of the history of the Crusades.* 

Whether this wandering Jew was found out in 
London or not, we cannot tell, but he shortly after 
appeared m Denmark, thence travelled into Sweden 
and vanished. 

Such are th^ principal notices of the Wandering 
Jew which have appeared. It will be seen at once 
how wanting they are in all substantial evidence 
which could make us regard the story in any other 
light than myth. 

But no myth is wholly w^ithout foundation, and 
there must be some substantial verity upon which 
this vast superstructure of legend has been raised. 
What that* is I am unable to discover. 

It has been suggested by some that the Jew 
Ahasverus is an impersonation of that race which 
wanders, Cain-like, over the earth with the brand 
of a brother's blood upon it, and one which is not 

* Calmet, Dictionn. de la Bible, t. ii. p. 472. 



r 




The Wandering yew. 25 

pass away till all be fulfilled, not to be reconciled 
:to its angered God till the times of the Gentiles 
are accomplished. And yet, probable as this sup- 
position may seem at first sight, it is not to be har- 
inionized with some of the leading features of the 
stoiy. The shoemaker becomes a penitent, and 
earnest Christian, whilst the Jewish nation has still 
the veil upon its heart ; the wretched wanderer es- 
chews money, and the avarice of the Israelite is 
proverbial. 

According to local legend, he is identified with 
the Gypsies, or rather that strange- people are sup- 
posed to be living under a curse somewhat similar 
to that inflicted on Ahasverus, because they refused 
shelter to the Virgin and Child on their flight into 
Egypt.* Another tradition connects the Jew with 
the wild huntsman, and there is a forest at Bretten, 
in Swabia, w^hich he is said to haunt. Popular 
superstition attributes to him there a purse con- 
taining a groschen, which, as often as it is expended, 
returns to the spender.f 

In the Harz one form of the Wild Huntsman 

* Aventinus, Bayr. Chronik, viii. 
t Meier, Schwiibischen Sagen, i. 116. 



26 The Wanderhig yew, 

myth is to this effect: that he was a Jew who had 
refused to suffer our Blessed Lord to drink out of 
a river, or out of a horse-trough, but had contemptu- 
ously pointed out to Him the hoof-print of a horse, 
in which a little water had collected, and had bid 
Him quench His thirst thence.* 

As the Wild Huntsman is the personification of 
the storm, it is curious to find in parts of France 
that the sudden roar of a gale at night is attributed 
by the vulgar to the passing of the Everlasting Jew, 

A Swiss story is, that he was seen one day stand- 
ing upon the Matterberg, which is below the 
Matterhorn, contemplating the scene with mingled 
sorrow and wonder. Once before he stood on that 
spot, and then it was the site of a flourishing city ; 
now it is covered with gentian and wild pinks. 
Once again will he revisit the hill, and that will be 
on the eve of Judgment. 

Perhaps, of all the myths which originated in the 
middle ages, none is more striking than that we 
have been considering ; indeed, there is something 
so calculated to arrest the attention and to excite 
the imagination in the outline of the story, that it 

* Kuhn u. Schwarz Nordd. Sagen, p. 499. 



The Wandering Jew, 27 

is remitrkable that we should find an interval of 
three centuries elapse between its first introduction 
into Europe by Matthew Paris and Philip Mouskes, 
and its general acceptance in the sixteenth century. 
As a myth, its roots lie in that great mystery of 
human life which is an enigma never solved, and 
ever originating speculation. 

What was life? Was it of necessity limited to 
fourscore years, or could it be extended indefinitely? 
were questions curious minds never wearied of ask- 
ing. And so the mythology of the past teemed 
with legends of favored or accursed mortals, who 
had reached beyond the term of days set to most 
men. Some had discovered the water of life, the 
fountain of perpetual youth, and were ever renew- 
ing their strength. Others had dared the power of 
God, and were therefore sentenced to feel the weight 
of His displeasure, without tasting the repose of 
death. 

John the Divine slept at Ephesus, untoirched by 
corruption, with the ground heaving over his breast 
as he breathed, waiting the summons to come forth 
and witness against Antichrist. The seven sleepers 
reposed in a cave, and centuries glided by like a 



28 The Wandering Jew, 



1 



watch in the night. The monk of Hildesheim, 
doubting how with God a thousand years could be 
as yesterday, listened to the melody of a bird in 
the green wood during three minutes, and found 
tliat in three minutes three hundred years had flown. 
Joseph of Arimathaea, in the blessed city of Sarras, 
draws perpetual life from the Saint Graal ; Merlin 
sleeps and sighs in an old tree, spell-bound of Vivien. 
Charlemagne and Barbarossa wait, crowned and 
armed, in the heart of the mountain, till the time 
comes for the release of Fatherland from despotism. 
And, on the other hand, the curse of a deathless 
life has passed on the Wild Huntsman, because he 
desired to chase the red-deer for evermore; en the 
Captain of the Phantom Ship, because he vowed he 
would double the Cape whether God willed it or 
not ; on the Man in the Moon, because he gathered 
sticks during the Sabbath rest; on the dancers of 
Kolbeck, because they desired to spend eternity in 
their mad gambols. 

I began this article intending to conclude it with 
a bibliographical account of the tracts, letters, essays, 
and books, written upon the Wandering Jew ; but 
I relinquish my Intention at the sight of the mulH- 



The Wandering Jew, 29 

tilde of works which have issued from the press 
upon the subject ; and this I do with less compunc- 
tion as the bibliographer may at little trouble and 
expense satisfy himself, by perusing the lists given 
by Grasse in his essay on the myth, and those to be 
found in " Notice historique et bibliographique sur 
les Juifs-errants : par O. B." (Gustave Brunet), Paris, 
Techener, 1845 ; also in the article by M. Mangin, 
in " Causeries et Meditations historiques et litte- 
raires," Paris, Duprat, 1843 ; and, lastly, in the essay 
by Jacob le Bibliophile (M. Lacroix) in his " Curi- 
osites de THistoire des Croyances populaires," Paris, 
Delahays, 1859. 

Of the romances of Eugene Sue and Dr. Croly, 
founded upon the legend, the less said the better. 
The original legend is so noble in its severe sim- 
plicity, that none but a master mind could develop 
it with any chance of success. Nor have the poeti- 
cal attempts upon the story fared better. It was 
reserved for the pencil of Gustave Dore to treat it 
with the originality it merited, and in a series of 
woodcuts to produce at once a poem, a romance, 
and a chef-d'oeuvre of art. 



30 



fJrcBtfr lol)n. 




Arms of the See of Chichester. 

A BOUT the middle of the twelfth century, a 
-^ ^ rumor circulated through Europe that there 
reigned in Asia a powerful Christian Emperor, Pres- 
byter Johannes. In a bloody fight he had broken the 
power of the Mussulmans, and was ready to come to 
the assistance of the Crusaders. Great was the ex- 
ultation in Europe, for of late the news from the East 
had been gloomy and depressing, the power of the 
infidel had increased, overwhelming masses of men 
had been brought into the field against the chivalry 
of Christendom, and it was felt that the cross must 
yield before the odious crescent. 

The news of the success of the Priest-King 
opened a door of hope, to the desponding Christian 



Pr ester yohn. 31 

world. Pope Alexander III. determined at once 
to effect a union with this mysterious personage, 
and on the 27th of September, 1177, wrote him a 
letter, which he intrusted to his physician, Philip, 
to deliver in person. 

Philip started on his embassy, but never returned. 
The conquests of Tschengis-Khan again attracted 
the eyes of Christian Europe to the East. The 
Mongol hordes were rushing in upon the west with 
devastating ferocity ; Russia, Poland, Hungary, and 
the eastern provinces of Germany, had succumbed, 
or suffered grievously ; and the fears of other na- 
tions were roused lest they too should taste the 
misery of a Mongolian invasion. It was Gog and 
Magog come to slaughter, and the times of Anti- 
christ were dawning. But the battle of Liegnitz 
stayed them in their onward career, and Europe 
was saved. 

Pope Innocent IV. determined to convert these 
wild hordes of barbarians, and subject them to the 
cross of Christ ; .he therefore sent among them a 
number of Dominican and Franciscan missioners, 
and embassies of peace passed between the Pope, 
the King of France, and the Mogul Khan. 



32 Pr ester yokn. 

The result of these communications with the East 
was, that the travellers learned how false were the 
prevalent notions of a mighty Christian empire existing 
in Central Asia. Vulgar superstition or conviction is 
not, however, to be upset by evidence, and the local- 
ity of the monarchy was merely transferred by the 
people to Africa, and they fixed upon Abyssinia, with 
a show of truth, as the seat of the famous Priest-King. 
However, still some doubted. John de Piano Carpini 
and Marco Polo, though they acknowledged the exist- 
ence of a Christian monarch in Abyssinia, yet stoutly 
maintained as well that the Prester John of popular 
belief reigned in splendor somewhere in the dim 
Orient. 

^ But before proceeding with the history of this 
strange fable, it wdll be well to extract the different 
accounts given of the Priest-King and his realm by 
early writers ; and we shall then be better able to 
judge of the influence the myth obtained in Europe. 

Otto of Freisingen is the first author to mention 
the monarchy of Prester John with whom we are 
acquainted. Otto wrote a chronicle up to the date 
1 156, and he relates that in 1145 the Catholic Bishop 
of Cabala visited Europe to lay certain complaints 



Pr ester yohn, 33 

before the Pope. He mentioned the fall of Edessa, 
and also " he stated that a few years ago a certain 
King and Priest called John, who lives on the farther 
side of Persia and Armenia, in the remote East, and 
who, with all his people, were Christians, though 
belonging to the Nestorian Church, had overcome 
the royal brothers Samiardi, kings of the Medes and 
Persians, and had captured Ecbatana, their capital 
and residence. The said kings had met with their 
Persian, Median, and Assyrian troops, and had fought 
for three consecutive days, each side having deter- 
mined to die rather than take to flight. Prester John, 
for so they are wont to call him, at length routed the 
Persians, and after a bloody battle, remained victori- 
ous. After which victory the said John was hasten- 
ing to the assistance of the Church at Jerusalem, but 
his host, on reaching the Tigris, was hindered from 
passing, through a deficiency in boats, and he directed 
his march North, since he had heard that the river 
was there covered with ice. In that place he had 
waited many years, expecting severe cold ; but the 
winters having proved unpropitious, and the severity 
of the climate having carried oflT many soldiers, he 
had been forced to retreat to his own land. This 
3 



34 Pr ester yohn. 

king belongs to the family of the Magi, mentioned in 
the Gospel, and he rules over the very people formerly 
governed by the Magi ; moreover, his fame and his 
w^ealth are so great, that he uses an emerald sceptre 
only. 

"Excited by the example of his ancestors, w^he 
came to v\rorship Christ in his cradle, he had pro- 
posed to go to Jerusalem, but had been impeded by 
the above-mentioned causes." * 

At the same time the story crops up in other quar- 
ters ; so that we cannot look upon Otto as the inventor 
of the myth. The celebrated Maimonides alludes to 
it in a passage quoted by Joshua Lorki, a Jewish 
physician to Benedict XIII. Maimonides lived from 
1135 to 1204. The passage is as follows: ''It is evi- 
dent both from the letters of Rambam (Maimonides), 
whose memory be blessed, and from the narration of 
merchants who have visited the ends of the earth, 
that at this time the root of our faith is to be found 
in the lands of Babel and Teman, where long ago 
Jerusalem was an exile ; not reckoning those who 
live in the land of l^arasf and Madai, % of the exiles 
of Schomrom, the number of which people is as the 

* Otto, Ep. Prising., lib. vii. c. 33. t Persia. % Media. 



Pr ester yo/in, 35 

sand : of these some are still under the yoke of Pai as, 
who is called the Great-Chief Sultan by the Arabs ; 
others live in a place under the yoke of a strange 
people . . . governed by a Christian chief, Preste- 
Cuan by name. With him they have made a com- 
pact, and he v^ith them ; and this is a matter concern- 
ing which there can be no manner of doubt." 

Benjamin of Tudela, another Jew, travelled in the 
East between the years 1159 and 1173, the last being 
the date of his death. He wrote an account of his 
travels, and gives in it some information with regard 
to a mythical Jew king, who reigned in the utmost 
splendor over a realm inhabited by Jews alone, situ- 
ate somewhere in the midst of a desert of vast extent. 
About this period there appeared a document which 
produced intense excitement throughout Europe — 
a letter, yes ! a letter from the mysterious personage 
himself to Manuel Comnenus, Emperor of Constanti- 
nople (1143-1180). The exact date of this extraor- 
dinary epistle cannot be fixed with any certainty, but 
it certainly appeared before 1241, the date of the 
conclusion of the chronicle of Albericus Trium Fon- 
tium. This Albericus relates that in the year 11 65 
" Presbyter Joannes, the Indian king, sent his wou- 



36 Pr ester John. 

deiful letter to various Christian princes, and espe- 
cially to Manuel of Constantinople, and Frederic 
the Roman Emperor." Similar letters were sent to 
Alexander III., to Louis VII. of France, and to the 
King of Portugal, which are alluded to in chroni- 
cles and romances, and which were indeed turned 
into rhyme, and sung all over Europe by minstrels 
and trouveres. The letter is as follows : — 

"John, Priest by the Almighty power of God and 
the Might of our Lord Jesus Christ, King of Kings, 
and Lord of Lords, to his friend Emanuel, Prince 
of Constantinople, greeting, wishing him health, 
prosperity, and the continuance of Divine favor. 

'' Our Majesty has been informed that you hold 
our Excellency in love, and that the report of our 
greatness has reached you. Moreover, we have 
heard through our treasurer that you have been 
pleased to send to us some objects of art and 
interest, that our Exaltedness might be gratified 
thereby. 

" Being human, I receive it in good part, and we 
have ordered our treasurer to send you some of our 
articles in return. 

'^ Now we desire to be made certain that you 



Pr ester jfokn. 37 

fiold the right faith, and in all things cleave to / 
Jesus Christ, our Lord, for we have heard that your 
court regard you as a god, though we know that 
you are mortal, and subject to human infirmities. 
. . . Should you desire to learn the greatness 
and excellency of our Exaltedness and of the land 
subject to our sceptre, then hear and believe : — I, 
Presbyter Johannes, the Lord of Lords, surpass all 
under heaven in virtue, in riches, and in power ; 
seventy-two kings pay us tribute. ... In the three 
Indies our Magnificence rules, and our land extends 
beyond India, where rests the body of the holy 
Apostle Thomas ; it reaches towards the sunrise 
over the wastes, and it trends towards deserted 
Babylon near the tower of Babel. Seventy-two 
provinces, of which only a few are Christian, serve 
us. Each has its own king, but all are tributary 
to us. X 

" Our land is the home of elephants, dromedaries, 
camels, crocodiles, meta-collinarum, cametennus, ten- 
sevetes, wild asses, white and red lions, white bears, 
white merules, crickets, griffins, tigers, lamias, hy- 
enas, wild horses, wild oxen and wild men, men 
with horns, one-eyed, men with eyes before and 



38 Pr ester John. 

behind, centaurs, fauns, satyrs, pygmies, forty-ell- 
high giants, Cyclopses, and similar women ; it is 
the home, too, of the phoenix, and of nearly all 
living animals. We have some people subject to 
us who feed on the flesh of men and of prematurely 
born animals, and who never fear death. When 
any of these people die, their friends and relations 
eat him ravenously, for they regard it as a main 
duty to munch human flesh. Their names are Gog 
and Magog, Anie, Agit, Azenach, Fommeperi, 
Befari, Conei-Samante, Agrimandri, Vintefolei, Cas- 
bei, Alanei. These and similar nations were shut 
in behind lofty mountains by Alexander the Great, 
towards the North. We lead them at our pleasure 
against our foes, and neither man nor beast is left 
undevoured, if our Majesty gives the requisite per- 
mission. And when all our foes are eaten, then we 
return with our hosts home again. These accursed 
fifteen nations will burst forth from the four quarters 
of the earth at the end of the world, in the times 
of Antichrist, and overrun all the abodes of the 
Saints as well as the great city Rome, which, by 
the way, we are prepared to give to our son" who 
will be born, along with all Italy, Germany, the 



Pr ester John, 39 

two Gauls, Britain and Scotland. We shall jjso 
give him Spain and all the land as far as the icy 
sea. The nations to which I have alluded, accord- 
ing to the words of the prophet, shall not §tand in 
the judgment, on account of their offensive practices, 
but will be consumed to ashes by a fire which will 
fall on them from heaven. 

'' Our land streams with honey, and is overflow- 
ing with milk. In one region grows no poisonous 
herb, nor does a querulous frog ever quack in it ; 
no scorpion exists, nor does the serpent glide 
amongst the grass, nor can any poisonous animals 
exist in it, or injure any one. 

" Among the ,heathen, flows through a certain 
province the River Indus ; encircling Paradise, it 
spreads its arms in manifold windings through the 
.entire province. Here are found the emeralds, 
sapphires, carbuncles, topazes, chrysolites, onyxes, 
beryls, sardius, and other costly stones. Here grows 
the plant Assidos, which, when worn by any one, 
protects him from the evil spirit, forcing it to state 
its business and name ; consequently the foul spirits 
keep out of the way there. In a certain land sub- 
ject to us, all kinds of pepper is gathered, and is 



40 Pr ester John, 

exchanged for corn and bread, leather and cloth. 
... At the foot of Mount Olympus bubbles up a 
spring which changes its flavor hour by hour, night 
and day, and the spring is scarcely three days' 
journey from Paradise, out of which Adam was 
driven. If any one has tasted thrice of the foun- 
tain, from that day he will feel no fatigue, but will, 
as long as he lives, be as a man of thirty years. 
Here are found the small stones called Nudiosi, 
which, if borne about the body, prevent the sight 
from waxing feeble, and restore it where it is lost. 
The more the stone is looked at, the keener be- 
comes the sight. In our territory is a certain water- 
less sea, consisting of tumbling billows of sand 
never at rest. None have crossed this sea ; it lacks 
water altogether, yet fish are cast up upon the 
beach of various kinds, very tasty, and the like are 
nowhere else to be seen. Three days' journey from 
this sea are mountains from which rolls down a 
stony, w^aterless river, which opens into the sandy 
sea. As soon as the stream reaches the sea, its 
stones vanish in it, and are never seen again. As 
long as the river is in motion, it cannot be crossed ; 
only four days a week is it possible to traverse it. 



Pr ester yohn. 41 

Between the sandy sea and the said mountains, in 
a certain plain is a fountain of singular virtue, 
which purges Christians and would-be Christians 
from all transgressions. The water stands four 
inches high in a hollow stone shaped like a mussel- 
shell. Two saintly old men watch by it, and ask 
the comers whether they are Christians, or are 
about to become Christians, then whether tliey de- 
gire healing with all their hearts. If they have 
answered well, they are bidden to lay aside their 
clothes, and to step into the mussel. If what they 
said be true, then the water begins to rise and gush 
over their heads ; thrice does the water thus lift 
itself, and every one who has entered the mussel 
leaves it cured of every complaint. 

" Near the wilderness trickles between barren 
mountains a subterranean rill, which can only by 
chance be reached, for only occasionally the earth 
gapes, and he who would descend must do it with 
precipitation, ere the earth closes again. All that 
is gathered under the ground there is gem and 
precious stone. The brook pours into another 
river, and the inhabitants of the neighborhood ob- 
tain thence abundance of precious stones. Yet tliey 



42 Pr ester yohn, 

never venture to sell them w^ithout having first 
offered them to us for our private use : should vs^e 
decline them-, they are at liberty to dispose of them 
to strangers. Boys there are trained to remain 
three or four days under v^ater, diving after the 
stones. 

" Beyond the stone river are the ten tribes of the 
Jews, which, though subject to their own kings, 
are, for all that, our slaves and tributary to our 
Majesty. In one of our lands, hight Zone, are 
worms called in our tongue Salamanders. These 
worms can only live in fire, and they build cocoons 
like silk-worms, which are unwound by the ladies 
of our palace, and spun into cloth and dresses, 
which are worn by our Exaltedness. These dresses, 
in order to be cleaned and washed, are cast into 
flames. . . • When we go to war, we have fourteen 
golden and bejewelled crosses borne before us in- 
stead of banners ; each of these crosses is followed 
by 10,000 horsemen, and 100,000 foot soldiers fully 
armed, without reckoning those in charge of the 
luggage and provision. 

'' When we ride abroad plainly, we have a 
wooden, unadorned cross, without gold or gem 



Pr ester yolin.:^ 43 

about it, borne before us, in order that we may 
meditate on the sufferings of Our Lord Jesus 
Christ ; also a golden bowl filled with earth, to 
remind us of that whence we sprung, and that to 
which we must return ; but besides these there is 
borne a silver bowl full of gold, as a token to all 
that we are the Lord of Lords. 

" All riches, such as are upon the world, our 
Magnificence possesses in superabundance. With 
us no one lies, for he who speaks a lie is thence-' 
forth regarded as dead ; he is no more thought of, 
or honored by us. No vice is tolerated by us. 
Every year we undertake a pilgrimage, with reti- 
nue of war, to the body of the holy prophet Dan- 
iel, which is near the desolated site of Babvlon. 
In our realm fishes are caught, the blood of which 
dyes purple. The Amazons and the Brahmins are 
subject to us. The palace in which our Super- 
eminency resides, is built after the pattern of the 
castle built by the Apostle Thomas for the Indian 
king Gundoforus. Ceilings, joists, and architrave 
aie of Sethym wood, the roof of ebony, which 
can never catch fire. Over the gable of the pal- 
ace are, at the extremities, two golden apples, 



44 Pr ester John, 

in each of which are two carbuncles, so that the 
gold may shine by day, and the carbuncles by 
night. The greater gates of the palace are of sar- 
dius, with the horn of the horned snake inwrought, 
so that no one can bring poison within. 

" The other portals are of ebony. The wi: dows 
are of crystal ; the tables are partly of gold, partly 
of amethyst, and the columns supporting the tables 
ai'e partly of ivory, partly of amethyst. The court 
in w^hich we watch the jousting is floored with 
onyx in order to increase the courage of the com- 
batants. In the palace, at night, nothing is burned 
for light but wicks supplied with balsam. . . . Be- 
fore our palace stands a mirror, the ascent to 
which consists of five and twenty steps of por- 
phyry and serpentine." After a description of the 
gems adorning this mirror, which is guarded night 
and day by three thousand armed men, he explains 
its use : '' We look therein and behold all that is 
taking place in every province and region subject 
to our sceptre. 

" Seven kings wait upon us monthly, in turn, 
with sixty-two dukes, two hundred and fifty-six 
counts and marquises : and twelve archbishops sit 



P?' ester yokn, 45 

at table with us on our right, and twenty bishops 
on the left, besides the patriarch of St. Thomas, the 
Sarmatian Protopope, and the Archpope of Susa. 
. . . Our lord high steward is a primate and king, 
our cup-bearer is an archbishop and king, our 
chamberlain a bishop and king, our marshal a king 
and abbot." 

I may be spared further extracts from this ex- 
traordinary letter, which proceeds to describe the 
church in which Prester John worships, by enu- 
merating the precious stones of which it is con- 
structed, and their special virtues. 

Whether this letter was in circulation before 
Pope Alexander wrote his, it is not easy to decide. 
Alexander does not allude to it, but speaks of the 
reports which have reached him of the piety and 
the magnificence of the Priest-King. At the same 
time, there runs a tone of bitterness through the 
letter, as though the Pope had been galled at the 
pretensions of this mysterious personage, and per- 
haps winced under the prospect of the man-eaters 
overrunning Italy, as suggested by John the Priest. 
The papal epistle is an assertion of the claims of 
the See of Rome to universal dominion, and it 



46 Pr ester yohn, 

assures the Eastern Prince-Pope that his Christian 
professions are worthless, unless he submits to the 
successor of Peter. " Not every one that saith unto 
me, Lord, Lord," &c., quotes the Pope, and then 
explains that the will of God is that every monarch 
and prelate should eat humble pie to the Sovereign 
Pontiff. 

Sir John Maundevil gives the origin of the 
priestly title of the Eastern despot, in his curious 
book of travels. 

" So it befelle, that this emperour cam, with a 
Cristene knyght with him, into a chirche in Egypt : 
and it was Saterday in Wyttson woke. And the 
bishop made orders. And he beheld and listened 
the servyse fuUe tentyfly : and he asked the Cris- 
tene knyght, what men of degree thei scholden 
ben, that the prelate had before him. And the 
knyght answerede and seyde, that thei scholde ben 
prestes. And then the emperour seyde, that he 
wolde no longer ben clept kyng ne emperour, but 
preest ; and that he wolde have the name of the 
first preest, that wente out of the chirche ; and his 
name was John. And so evere more sittiens, he is 
clept Prestre John." 



Prester John. 47 

It is probable that the foundation of the whole 
Prester-John myth lay in the report which reached 
Europe of the wonderful successes of Nestorianism 
in the East, and there seems reason to believe that 
the famous letter given above was a Nestoriaii 
fabrication. It certainly looks un-European ; the 
gorgeous imagery is thoroughly Eastern, and the 
disparaging tone in which Rome is spoken of could 
hardly have been the expression of Western feel- 
ings. The letter has the object in view of exalting 
the East in religion and arts to an undue eminence 
at the expense of the West, and it manifests some 
ignorance of European geography, when it speaks 
of the land extending from Spain to the Polar Sea. 
Moreover, the sites of the patriarchates, and the 
dignity conferred on that of St. Thomas, are indica- 
tions of a Nestorian bias. 

A brief glance at the history of this heretical 
Church may be of value here, as showing that 
there really was a foundation for the wild legends 
concerning a Christian empire in the East, so 
prevalent in Europe. Nestorius, a priest of An- 
tioch and a disciple of St. Chrysostom, was elevated 
by the emperor to the patriarchate of Constant!- 



48 Pr ester yoJin, 

nople, and in the year 428 began to propagate his 
heresy, denying the hypostatic union. The Council 
of Ephesus denounced him, and, in spite of the 
emperor and court, Nestorius was anathematized 
and driven into exile. His sect spread through the 
East, and became a flourishing church. It reached 
to China, where the emperor was all but converted ; 
its missionaries traversed the frozen tundras of Si- 
beria, preaching their maimed Gospel to the wild 
hordes which haunted those dreary wastes ; it faced 
Buddhism, and wrestled with it for the religious 
supremacy in Thibet ; it established churches in 
Persia and in Bokhara ; it penetrated India ; it 
formed colonies in Ceylon, in Siam, and in Suma- 
tra ; so that the Catholicos or Pope of Bagdad 
exercised sway more extensive than that ever ob- 
tained by the successor of St. Peter. The number 
of Christians belonging to that communion proba- 
bly exceeded that of the members of the true Cath- 
olic Church in East and West. But the Nestorian 
Church was not founded on the Rock ; it rested on 
Nestorius ; and when the rain descended, and the 
winds blew, and the floods came, and beat upon 
that house, it fell, leaving scarce a fragment behind. 



Pr ester John, 49 

Rubruquis the Franciscan, who in 1253 was sent 
on a mission into Tartary, was the first to let in a 
little light on the fable. He writes, "The Catai 
dwelt beyond certain mountains across which I wan- 
dered, and in a plain in the midst of the mountains 
lived once an important Nestorian shepherd, who 
ruled over the Nestorian people, called Nayman. 
When Coir-Khan died, the Nestorian people raised 
this man to be king, and called him King Johannes, 
and related of him ten times as much as the truth. 
The Nestorians thereabouts have this way with them, 
that about nothing they make a great fuss, and thus 
they have got it noised abroad that Sartach, Mangu- 
Khan, and Ken-Khan were Christians, simply because 
they treated Christians well, and showed them more 
honor than other people. Yet, in fact, they were not 
Christians at all. And in like manner the story got 
about that there was a great King John. However, 
I traversed his pastures, and no one knew anything 
about him, except a few Nestorians. In his pastures 
lives Ken-Khan, at whose court was Brother Andrew, 
whom I met on my way back. This Johannes had 
a brother, a famous shepherd, named Unc, who lived 

4 



50 Pr ester John, 

three weeks' journey beyond the mountains of Caia- 
catais." 

This Unk-Khan was a real individual ; he lost his 
life in the year 1203. Kuschhik, prince of the Nay- 
man, and follower of Kor-Khan, fell in 12 18. 

Marco Polo, the Venetian traveller (i 254-1324), 
identifies Unk-Khan with Prester John ; he says, " I 
will now tell you of the deeds of the Tartars, how 
they gained the mastery, and spread over the whole 
earth. The Tartars dwelt between Georgia and Bar- 
gu, where there is a vast plain and level country, on 
which are neither cities nor forts, but capital pastur- 
age and water. They had no chief of their own, but 
paid to Prester Johannes tribute. Of the greatness 
of this Prester Johannes, who was properly called 
Un-Khan, the whole world spake ; the Tartars gave 
him one of every ten head of cattle. When Prester 
John noticed that they were increasing, he feared 
them, and planned how he could injure them. He 
determined therefore to scatter them, and he sent 
barons to do this. But the Tartars guessed what 
Prester John purposed • . . and they went away into 
the wide wastes of the North, where they might be 
beyond his reach." He then goes on to relate how 



P7^ ester yohn, 51 

'I'schengis-('Jenghiz-)Khan became the head of the 
Tartars, and how he fought against Prester John, 
and, after a desperate fight, overcame and slew him. 

The Syriac Chronicle of the Jacobite Primate, 
Gregory Bar-Hebraeus (born 1226, died 1286), also 
identifies Unk-Khan with Prester John. " In the 
year of the Greeks 15 14, of the Arabs 599 (A. D. 
1202), when Unk-Khan, who is the Christian King 
John, ruled over a stock of the barbarian Hunns, 
called Kergt, Tschingys-Khan served him with great 
zeal. When John observed the superiority and ser- 
viceableness of the other, he envied him, and plotted 
to seize and murder him. But two sons of Unk- 
Khan, having heard this, told it to Tschingys ; where- 
upon he and his comrades fled by night, and secreted 
themselves. Next morning Unk-Khan took posses- 
sion of the Tartar tents, but found them empty. 
Then the party of Tschingys fell upon him, and they 
met by the spring called Balschunah, and the side 
of Tschingys won the day ; and the followers of 
Unk-Khan were compelled to yield. They met again 
several times, till Unk-Khan was utterly discomfited, 
and was slain himself, and his wives, sons, and 
^r^ughters carried into captivity. Yet we must con- 



52 Pr ester yohn, 

sider that King John the Kergtajer was not cast down 
for nought ; nay, rather, because he had turned his 
heart from the fear of Christ his Lord, who had 
exalted him, and had taken a wife of the Zinish 
nation, called Qiiarakhata. Because he forsook the 
religion of his ancestors and followed strange gods, 
therefore God took the government from him, and 
gave it to one better than he, and whose heart was 
right before God." 

Some of the early travellers, such as John de 
Plano-Carpini and Marco Polo, in disabusing the 
popular mind of the belief in Prester John as a 
mighty Asiatic Christian monarch, unintentionally 
turned the popular faith in that individual into a 
new direction. They spoke of the black people of 
Abascia in Ethiopia, which, by the way, they called 
Middle India, as a great people subject to a Christian 
monarch. 

Marco Polo says that the true monarch of Abyssinia 
is Christ ; but that it is governed by six kings, three 
of whom are Christians and three Saracens, and that 
they are in league with the Soudan of Aden. 

Bishop Jordanus, in his description of the world, 
accordingly sets down Abyssinia as the kingdom of 



Pr ester John. 53 

Prester John ; and sucli was the popular impression, 
which was confirmed by the appearance at intervals 
of ambassadors at European courts from the King 
of Abyssinia. The discovery of the Cape of Good 
Hope was due partly to a desire manifested in Portu- 
gal to open communications with this monarch,* and 
King John II. sent two men learned in Oriental lan- 
guages through Egypt to the court of Abyssinia. The 
might and dominion of this prince, who had replaced 
the Tartar chief in the popular creed as Prester John, 
was of course greatly exaggerated, and was supposed 
to extend across Arabia and Asia to the wall of 
China. The spread of geographical knowledge has 
contracted the area of his dominions, and a critical 
acquaintance, with history has exploded the myth 
which invested Unk-Khan, the nomad chief, with all 
the attributes of a demigod, uniting in one the utmost 
pretensions of a Pope and the proudest claims of a 
monarch. 

* Ludolfi Hist, ^thiopica, lib. ii. cap. i, 2. Petrus, Petri 
filius Lusitanise princeps, M. Pauli Veneti librum (qui de 
Indorum rebus multa : speciatim vero de Presbjtero Johanna 
aliqua magnifice scripsit) Venetiis secum in patriam detulerat, 
qui (Chronologicis Lusitanorum testantibus) pr^cipuam Jo- 
hanni Regi ansam dedit Indicse navigationis, quam Henricus 
JohannU I. filius, patruus ejus, tentaverat, prosequendae^ &c. 



54 



^\}t JBbimng Bob 

FROM the remotest period a rod has been re- 
garded as the symbol of power and authority, 
and Holy Scripture employs it in the popular sense. 
Thus David speaks of " Thy rod and Thy staff com- 
forting me ; " and Moses works his miracles before 
Pharaoh with the rod as emblem of Divine commis- 
sion. It was his rod which became a serpent, which 
turned the water of Egypt into blood, which opened 
the waves of the Red Sea and restored them to their 
former level, which " smote the rock of stone so that 
the water gushed out abundantly." The rod of Aaron 
acted an oracular part in the contest with the princes ; 
laid up before the ark, it budded and brought forth 
almonds. In this instance we have it no longer as 
a symbol of authority, but as a means of divining 
the will of God. And as such it became liable 
to abuse ; thus Hosea rebukes the chosen people 
for practising similar divinations- "My people ask 



The Divining Rod, 55 

counsel at their stocks, and tlieir staff declarcth unto 
them." * 

Long before this, Jacob had made a different use 
of rods, employing them as a charm to make his 
father-in-law's sheep bear pied and spotted lambs. 

We find rhabdomancy a popular form of divination 
among the Greeks, and also among the Romans. 
Cicero in his " De Officiis" alludes to it. "If all 
that is needful for our nourishment and support ar- 
rives to us by means of some divine rod, as people 
say, then each of us, free from all care and trouble, 
may give himself up to the exclusive pursuit of 
study and science." 

Probably it is to this rod that the allusion of 
Ennius, as the agent in discovering hidden treasures, 
quoted in the first book of his " De Divinatione," 
refers. 

According to Vetranius Maurus, Varro left a satire 
on the '' Virgula divina," vs^hich has not been pre- 
served. Tacitus tells us that the Germans practised 
some sort of divination by means of rods. " For 
the purpose their method is simple. They cut a 
rod off some fruit-tree into bits, and after having 
distinguished them by various marks, they cast them 
* Hos. iv. 12. 



56 • The Divining Rod. 

into a white cloth. . . . Then the priest thrice 
draws each piece, and explains the oracle accord- 
ing to the marks." Ammianus Marcellinus says that 
the Alains employed an osier rod. 

The fourteenth law of the Prisons ordered that 
the discovery of murders should be made by means 
of divining rods used in Church. These rods should 
be laid before the altar, and on the sacred relics, 
after which God was to be supplicated to indicate 
the culprit. This was called the Lot of Rods, or 
Tan-teen, the Rod of Rods. 

But the middle ages was the date of the full 
development of the superstition, and the divining rod 
was believed to have efficacy in discovering hidden 
treasures, veins of precious metal, springs of water, 
thefts, and murders. The first notice of its general 
use among late writers is in the '' Testamentum 
Novum," lib. i. cap. 25, of Basil Valentine, a Ben- 
edictine monk of the fifteenth century. Basil speaks 
of the general faith in and adoption of this valuable 
instrument for the discovery of metals, which is 
carried by workmen in mines, either in their belts 
or in their caps. He says that there are seven 
names by which this rod is known, and to its ex- 



The Divining Rod. 57 

cellences under each title he devotes a chapter of 
his book. The names are : Divine Rod, Shining 
Rod, Leaping Rod, Transcendent Rod, Trembling 
Rod, Dipping Rod, Superior Rod. In his admira- 
ble treatise on metals, Agricola speaks of the rod 
in terms of disparagement ; he considers its use as 
a relic of ancient magical forms, and he says that 
it is only irreligious workmen vsrho employ it in 
their search after metals. Goclenius, however, in 
his treatise on the virtue of plants, stoutly does bat- 
tle for the properties of the hazel rod. Whereupon 
Roberti, a Flemish Jesuit, falls upon him tooth and 
nail, disputes his facts, overwhelms him with abuse, 
and gibbets him for popular ridicule. Andreas Li- 
bavius, a writer I have already quoted in my article 
on the Wandering Jew, undertook a series of ex- 
periments upon the hazel divining rod, and con- 
cluded that there was truth in the popular belief. 
The Jesuit Kircher also '' experimentalized several 
times on wooden rods w^iich were declared to be 
sympathetic with regard to certain metals, by placing 
them on delicate pivots in equilibrium ; but they 
never turned on the approach of metal." (De Arte 
Magnetica.) However, a similar course of experi- 



58 The Divining Rod. 

nients over water led him to attribute to the rod the 
power of indicating subterranean springs and water- 
courses ; " I would not affirm it," he says, " unless I 
had established the fact by my own experience." 

Dechales, another Jesuit, author of a treatise on 
natural springs, and of a huge tome entitled " Mun- 
dus Mathematicus," declared in the latter work, 
that no means of discovering sources is equal to 
the divining rod ; and he quotes a friend of his 
who, with a hazel rod in his hand, could discover 
springs with the utmost precision and facility, and 
could trace on the surface of the ground the course 
of a subterranean conduit. Another writer, Saint- 
Romain, in his '' Science degagee des Chimeres de 
I'Ecole," exclaims, '' Is it not astonishing to see a rod, 
which is held firmly in the hands, bow itself and 
turn visibly in the direction of water or metal, with 
more or less promptitude, according as the metal or 
the water are near or remote from the surface ! " 

In 1659 the Jesuit Gaspard Schott writes that the 
rod is used in every town of Germany, and that he 
had frequent opportunity of seeing it used in the 
discovery of hidden treasures. '' I searched with the 
greatest care," he adds, " into the question whether 



The Divining Rod. 59 

the hazel rod had any sympathy with gold and sil- 
ver, and whether any natural property set it in mo- 
tion. In like manner I tried whether a ring of 
metal, held suspended by a thread in the midst of 
a tumbler, and which strikes the hours, is moved 
by any similar force. I ascertained that these effects 
could only have rise from the deception of those 
holding the rod or the pendulum, or, may be, from 
some diabolic impulsion, or, more likely still, be- 
cause imagination sets the hand in motion." 

The Sieur le Royer, a lawyer of Rouen, in 1674, 
published his " Traite du Baton universel," in which 
he gives an account of a trial made with the rod 
in the presence of Father Jean Frangois, who had 
ridiculed the operation in his treatise on the science 
of waters, published at Rennes in 1655, and which 
succeeded in convincing the blasphemer of the divine 
Rod. Le Royer denies to it the power of picking 
out criminals, which had been popularly attributed 
to it, and as had been unhesitatingly claimed for it 
by Debrio in his "Disquisitio Magica." 

And now I am brought to the extraordinary story 
of Jacques Aymar, which attracted the attention of 
Europe to the marvellous properties of the divining 



6o The Divining Rod, 

rod. I shall gwe the history of this man in full, as 
such an account is rendered necessary by the muti-. 
lated versions I have seen current in English maga- 
zine articles, v^hich follow the lead of Mrs. Crowe, 
who narrates the earlier portion of this impostor's 
career, but says nothing of his expose and downfall. 

On the 5th July, 1692, at about ten o'clock in the 
evening, a wine-seller of Lyons and his wnfe were 
assassinated in their cellar, and their money carried 
off. On the morrow, the officers of justice arrived, 
and examined the premises. Beside the corpses lay 
a large bottle wrapped in straw, and a bloody hedg- 
ing bill, which undoubtedly had been the instrument 
used to accomplish the murder. Not a trace of 
those who had committed the horrible deed was to 
be found, and the magistrates were quite at fault 
as to the direction in which they should turn for a 
clew to the murderer or murderers. 

At this juncture a neighbor reminded the magis- 
trates of an incident which had taken place foui 
years previous. It was this. In 1688 a theft of 
clothes had been made in Grenoble. In the parish 
of Crole lived a man named Jacques Ay mar, sup- 
posed to be endowed with the faculty of using the 



The Divining Rod, 6i 

divining rod. This man was sent for. On reaching 
the spot where the theft had been committed, his 
rod moved in his hand. He followed the track in- 
dicated by the rod, and it continued to rotate between 
his fingers as long as he followed a certain direction, 
but ceased to turn if he diverged from it in the small- 
est degree. Guided by his rod, Aymar went from 
street to street, till he was brought to a standstill 
before the prison gates. These could not be opened 
without leave of the magistrate, who hastened to wit- 
ness the experiment. The gates were unlocked, and 
Aymar, under the same guidance, directed his steps 
towards four prisoners lately incarcerated. He or- 
dered the four to be stood in a line, and then he 
placed his foot on that of the first. The rod re- 
mained immovable. He passed to the second, and 
the rod turned at once. Before the third prisoner 
there were no signs ; the fourth trembled, and begged 
to be heard. He owned himself the thief, along 
with the second, who also acknowledged the theft, 
and mentioned the name of the receiver of the stolen 
goods. This was a farmer in the neighborhood of 
Grenoble. The magistrate and officers visited him 
and demanded the articles he had obtained. The 



62 The Divining Rod. 

farmer denied all knowledge of the theft and all par- 
ticipation in the booty. Aymar, however, by means 
of his rod, discovered the secreted property, and re- 
stored it to the persons from whom it had been stolen. 

On another occasion Aymar had been in quest of a 
spring of water, when he felt his rod turn sharply in 
his hand. On digging at the spot, expecting to dis- 
cover an abundant source, the body of a murdered 
woman was found in a barrel, with a rope twisted 
round her neck. The poor creature was recognized 
as a woman of the neighborhood who had vanished 
four months before. Aymar went to the house which 
the victim had inhabited, and presented his rod to 
each member of the household. It turned upon the 
husband of the deceased, who at once took to flight. 

The magistrates of Lyons, at their wits' ends how 
to discover the perpetrators of the double murder in 
the wine shop, urged the Procureur du Roi to make 
experiment of the powers of Jacques Aymar. The 
fellow was sent for, and he boldly asserted his capa- 
city for detecting criminals, if he were first brought to 
the spot of the murder, so as to be put en rapport 
with the murderers. 

He was at once conducted to the scene of the out- 



The Divining Rod, 63 

rage, with the rod in his hand. This remained sta- 
tionary as he traversed the cellar, till he reached the 
spot where the body of the wine seller had lain ; then 
the stick became violently agitated, and the man's 
pulse rose as though he were in an access of fever. 
The same motions and symptoms manifested them- 
selves when he reached the place where the second 
victim had lain. 

Having thus received his impression^ Aymar left 
the cellar, and, guided by his rod, or rather by an 
internal instinct, he ascended into the shop, and then 
stepping into the street, he followed from one to 
another, like a hound upon the scent, the track of the 
murderers. It conducted him into the court of the 
archiepiscopal palace, across it, and down to the gate 
of the Rhone. It was now evening, and the city 
gates being all closed, the quest of blood was relin- 
quished for the night. 

Next morning Aymar returned to the scent. Ac- 
companied by three officers, he left the gate, and 
descended the right bank of the Rhone. The rod 
gave indications of there having been three involved 
in the murder, and he pursued the traces till two of 
them led to a gardener's cottage. Into this he en- 



64 The Divining Rod. 

tered, and there he asserted with warmth, against the 
asseverations of the proprietor to the contrary, that 
the fugitives had entered his room, had seated them- 
selves at his table, and had drunk wine out of one of 
the bottles which he indicated. Aymar tested each 
of the household with his rod, to see if they had been 
in contact with the murderers. The rod moved over 
the two children only, aged respectively ten and nine 
years. These little things, on being questioned, an- 
swered, with reluctance, that during their father's 
absence on Sunday morning, against his express com- 
mands, they had left the door open, and that two 
men, whom they described, had come in suddenly 
upon them, and had seated themselves and made 
free with the wine in the bottle pointed out by the 
man with the rod. This first verification of the talents 
of Jacques Aymar convinced some of the sceptical, but 
the Procurateur General forbade the prosecution of the 
experiment till the man had been further tested. 

As already stated, a hedging bill had been dis- 
covered, on the scene of the murder, smeared with 
blood, and unquestionably the weapon with which 
the crime had been committed. Three bills from the 
same maker, and of precisely the same description, 



The Divining Rod, 65 

were obtained, and the four were taken into a garden, 
and secretly buried at intervals. Aymar was then 
brought, staff in hand, into the garden, and conducted 
over the spots where lay the bills. The rod began to 
vibrate as his feet stood upon the place where was 
concealed the bill which had been used by the assas- 
sins, but was motionless elsewhere. Still unsatisfied, 
the four bills were exhumed and concealed anew. 
The comptroller of the province himself bandaged 
the sorcerer's eyes, and led him by the hand from 
place to place. The divining rod showed no signs 
of movement till it approached the blood-stained 
weapon, when it began to oscillate. 

The magistrates were now so far satisfied as to 
agree that Jacques Aymar should be authorized to 
follow the trail of the murderers, and have a com- 
pany of archers to follow him. 

Guided by his rod, Aymar now recommenced his 
pursuit. He continued tracing down the right bank 
of the Rhone till he came to half a league from the 
bridge of Lyons. Here the footprints of three men 
were observed in the sand, as though engaged in 
entering a boat. A rowing boat was obtained, and 
Aymar, with his escort, descended the river ; he found 
5 



66 The Divining Rod. 

some difBculty in following the trail upon water ; 
still he was able, with a little care, to detect it. It 
brought him under an arch of the bridge of Vienne, 
which boats rarely passed beneath. This proved that 
the fugitives were without a guide. The way in 
which this curious journey was made was singular. 
At intervals Aymar was put ashore to test the banks 
with his rod, and ascertain whether the murderers 
had landed. He discovered the places where they 
had slept, and indicated the chairs or benches on 
which they had sat. In this manner, by slow degrees, 
he arrived at the military camp of Sablon, between 
Vienne and vSaint-Valier. There Aymar felt violent 
agitation, his cheeks flushed, and his pulse beat with 
rapidity. He penetrated the crowds of soldiers, but 
did not venture to use his rod, lest the men should 
take it ill, and fall upon him. He could not do more 
without special authority, and was constrained to re- 
turn to Lyons. The magistrates then provided him 
with the requisite powers, and he went back to the 
qamp. Now he declared that the murderers were not 
there. He recommenced his pursuit, and descended 
the Rhone again as far as Beaucaire. 

On entering the town he ascertained by means of 



The Divining Rod. 67 

his rod that those whom he was pursuing had parted 
.company. He traversed several streets, then crowded 
on account of the annual fair, and was brought to a 
standstill before the prison doors. One of the mur- 
derers was within, he declared ; he would track the 
others afterwards. Having obtained permission to 
enter, he was brought into the presence of fourteen 
or fifteen prisoners. Amongst these was a hunch- 
back, who had only an hour previously been incar- 
cerated on account of a theft he had committed at the 
fair. Aymar applied his rod to each of the prisoners 
in succession : it turned upon the hunchback. The 
sorcerer ascertained that the other two had left the 
town by a little path leading into the Nismes road. 
Instead of following this track, he returned to Lyons 
with the hunchback and the guard. At Lyons a 
triumph awaited him. The hunchback had hitherto 
protested his innocence, and declared that he had 
never set foot in Lyons. But as he was brought to 
that town by the way along which Aymar had ascer- 
tained that he had left it, the fellow was recognized 
at the different houses where he had lodged the night, 
or stopped for food. At the little town of Bagnols, he 
was confronted with the host and hostess of a tavern 



68 The Divining Rod. 

where he and his comrades had slept, and they swore 
to his identity, and accurately described his compan-*, 
ions : their description tallied with that given by the 
children of the gardener. The wretched man was so 
confounded by this recognition, that he avowed hav- 
ing staid there, a few days before, along with two 
Provencals. These men, he said, were the criminals ; 
he had been their servant, and had only kept guard 
in the upper room whilst they committed the murders 
in the cellar. \ 

On his arrival in Lyons he was committed to 
prison, and his trial was decided on. At his first 
interrogation he told his tale precisely as he had 
related it before, with these additions : the murderers 
spoke patois, and had purchased two bills. At ten 
o'clock in the evening all three had entered the wine 
shop. The Provencals had a large bottle wrapped in 
straw, and they persuaded the publican and his w^ife 
to descend with them into the cellar to fill it, whilst 
he, the hunchback, acted as watch in the shop. The 
two men murdered the wine-seller and his wife with 
their bills, and then mounted to the shop, where they 
opened the coffer, and stole from it one hundred and 
thirty crowns, eight louis-d'ors, and a silver belt. 



1 



The Divining Rod, 69 

The crime accomplished, they took refuge in the 
court of a hirge house, — this was the archbishop's 
palace, indicated by Aymar, — and passed the night 
in it. Next day, early, they left Lyons, and only 
stopped for a moment at a gardener's cottage. 
Some way down the river, they found a boat 
moored to the bank. This they loosed from its 
mooring and entered. They came ashore at the 
spot pointed out by the man with the stick. They 
staid some days in the camp at Sablon, and then 
went on to Beaucaire. 

Aymar was now sent in quest of the other mur- 
derers. He resumed their trail at the gate of 
Beaucaire, and that of one of them, after con- 
siderable detours^ led him to the prison doors of 
Beaucaire, and he asked to be allowed to search 
among the prisoners for his man. This time he 
was mistaken. The second fugitive was not with- 
in ; but the jailer affirmed that a man whom he 
described — and his description tallied with the 
known appearance of one of the ProvenQals — had 
called at the gate shortly after the removal of the 
hunchback to inquire after him, and on learning 
of his removal to Lyons, had hurried off pre- 



7o The Divining Rod* ' 

cipitately. Aymar now followed his track from 
the prison, and this brought him to that of the 
third criminal. He pursued the double scent for 
some days. But it became evident that the two 
culprits had been alarmed at what had transpired in 
Beaucaire, and were flying from France. Aymar 
traced them to the frontier, and then returned to 
Lyons. 

On the 30th of August, 1692, the poor hunch- 
back was, according to sentence, broken on the 
wheel, in the Place des Terreaux. On his way to 
execution he had to pass the wine shop. There 
the recorder publicly read his sentence, which had 
been delivered by thirty judges. The criminal 
knelt and asked pardon of the poor wretches in 
whose murder he was involved, after which he 
continued his course to the place fixed for his 
execution. 

It may be well here to give an account of the 
authorities for this extraordinary story. There are 
three circumstantial accounts, and numerous letters 
written by the magistrate who sat during the trial, 
and by an eye-witness of the whole transaction, 
men honorable and disinterested, upon whose vera- 



The Divining Rod. *ji 

city not a shadow of doubt was supposed to rest 
by their contemporaries. 

M. Chauvin, Doctor of Medicine, published a 
" Lettre a Mme, la Marquise de Senozan^ sur 
les moyens doitt on s^est servi four decouvrir les 
complices d'un assassinat commis a Lyon^ le 5 
Juillet^ 1692." Lyons, 1692. The proce s-verbal 
of the Procureur du Roi, M. de Vanini, is also 
extant, and published in the Physique occulte of 
the Abbe de Vallemont. 

Pierre Garnier, Doctor of Medicine of the Uni- 
versity of Montpellier, wrote a Disseftation phy- 
sique en forme de lettre^ a M. de Seve^ seigneur 
de FUcheres^ on Jacques Aymar, printed the same 
year at Lyons, and republished in the Histoire 
critique des pratiques superstitieuses du JPere 
Lebrun. 

Doctor Chauvin was witness of nearly all the 
circumstances related, as was also the Abbe 
Lagarde, who has written a careful account of the 
whole transaction as far as to the execution of 
the hunchback. 

Another eye-w^itness writes to the Abbe Bignon 
a letter - printed by Lebrun in his Histoire cri^ 



>72 The Divining Rod. 

tique cited above. '' The following circumstance 
happened to me yesterday evening," he says : '' M. 
le Procureur du Roi here, who, by the way, is one 
of the wisest and cleverest men in the country, 
sent for me at six o'clock, and had me conducted 
to the scene of the murder. We found there M. 
Grimaut, director of the customs, whom I knew 
to be a very upright man, and a young attorney 
named Besson, with whom I am not acquainted, 
but who M. le Procureur du Roi told me had the 
power of using the rod as well as M. Grimaut. 
We descended into the cellar where the murder 
had been committed, and where there were still 
traces of blood. Each time that M. Grimaut and 
the attorney passed the spot where the murder had 
been perpetrated, the rods they held in their hands 
began to turn, but ceased when they stepped be- 
yond the spot. We tried experiments for more 
than an hour, as also with the bill, which M. 
le Procureur had brought along with him, and 
they were satisfactory. I observed several curious 
facts in the attorney. The rod in his hands w^as 
more violently moved than in those of M. Grimaut, 
and when I placed one of my fingers in each of 



The Divining Rod, 73 

his hands, whilst the rod turned, I felt the most ex- 
traordinary throbbings of the arteries in his palms. 
His pulse was at fever heat. He sweated profusely, 
and at intervals he was compelled to go into the 
court to obtain fresh air." 

Thvi Sieur Pauthot, Dean of the College of 
Medicine at Lyons, gave his obsei*vations to the 
public as well. Some of them are as follows : 
" We began at the cellar in which the murder had 
been committed ; into this the man with the rod 
(Aymar) shrank from entering, because he felt 
violent agitations which overcame him w^ien he 
used the stick over the place where the corpses 
of those who had been assassinated had lain.. On 
entering the cellar, the rod was put in my hands, 
and arranged by the master as most suitable for 
operation ; I passed and repassed over the spot 
where the bodies had been found, but it remained 
immovable, and I felt no agitation. A lady of rank 
and merit, who w^as with us, took the rod after 
me ; she felt it begin to move, and w^as internally 
agitated. Then the owner of the rod resumed it, 
and, passing over the same places, the stick rotated 
with such violence that it seemed easier to break 



74 ^'^^ Divining Rod. 

than to stop it. The peasant then quitted our 
company to faint away, as was his wont after 
similar experiments. I followed him. He turned 
very pale and broke into a profuse perspiration, 
whilst for a quarter of an hour his pulse was vio- 
lently troubled ; indeed, the faintness was so con- 
siderable, that they were obliged to dash water in 
his face and give him water to drink in order to 
bring him round." He then describes experiments 
made over the bloody bill and others similar, which 
succeeded in the hands of Aymar and the lady, but 
failed when he attempted them himself. Pierre 
Garnier, physician of the medical college of Mont- 
pellier, appointed to that of Lyons, has also written 
an account of w^iat he saw, as mentioned above. 
He gives a curious proof of Aymar's powers. 

" M. le Lieutenant-General having been robbed 
by one of his lackeys, seven or eight months ago, 
and having lost by him twenty-five crowns which 
had been taken out of one of the cabinets behind 
his library, sent for Aymar, and asked him to 
discover the circumstances. Aymar went several 
times round the chamber, rod in hand, placing 
one foot on the chairs, on the various articles of 



The Divining Rod, 75 

furniture, and on two bureaux which are in the 
aparti.Tfient, each of which contains several drawers. 
He fixed on the very bureau and the identical 
drawer out of which the money had been stolen. 
M. le Lieutenant-General bade him follow the 
track of the robber. He did so. With his rod 
he went out on a new terrace, upon which the 
cabinet opens, thence back into the cabinet and 
up to the fire, then into the library, and from 
thence he went direct up stairs to the lackeys' 
sleeping apartment, when the rod guided him to 
one of the beds, and turned over one side of the 
bed, remaining motionless over the other. The 
lackeys then present cried out that the thief had 
slept on the side indicated b}^ the rod, the bed 
having been shared with another footman, who 
occupied the further side." Garnier gives a lengthy 
account of various experiments he made along with 
the Lieutenant-General, the uncle of the same, the 
Abbe de St. Remain, and M. de Puget, to detect 
whether there was imposture in the man. But all 
their attempts failed to discover a trace of decep- 
tion. He gives a report of ?i verbal examination 
of Aymar which is interesting. The man always 
replied with candor. 



76 The Divining Rod, 

The report of the extraordinary discovery of 
murder made by the divining rod at Lyons at- 
tracted the attention of Paris, and Aymar was 
ordered up to the capital. There, hov^ever, hi^s 
powers left him. The Prince de Conde submitted 
him to various tests, and he broke down under 
every one. Five holes wxre dug in the garden. 
In one was secreted gold, in another silver, in 
a third silver and gold, in the fourth copper, and 
in the fifth stones. The rod made no signs in 
presence of the metals, and at last actually began 
to move over the buried pebbles. He was sent to 
Chantilly to discover the perpetrators of a theft of 
trout made in the ponds of the park. He went 
round the water, rod in hand, and it turned at spots 
where he said the fish had been drawn out. Then, 
following the track of the thief, it led him to the 
cottage of one of the keepers, but did not move 
over any of the individuals then in the house. The 
keeper himself was absent, but arrived late at 
night, and, on hearing what was said, he roused 
Aymar from his bed, insisting on having his inno- 
cence vindicated. The divining rod, however, pro- 
nounced him guilty, and the poor fellow took to his 



The Divining Rod. 77 

heels, much upon the principle recommended by 
Montesquieu a while after. Said he, " If you are 
accused of having stolen the towers of Notre- 
Dame, bolt at once." 

A peasant, taken at haphazard from the street, 
was brought to the sorcerer as one suspected. The 
rod turned slightly, and Aymar declared that the 
man did not steal the fish, but ate of them. A 
boy was then introduced, who was said to be the 
keeper's son. The rod rotated violently at once. 
This was the finishing stroke, and Aymar was 
sent away by the Prince in disgrace. It now 
transpired that the theft of fish had taken place 
seven years before, and the lad was no relation of 
the keeper, but a country boy who had only be^n 
in Chantilly eight or ten months. M. Goyonnot, 
Recorder of the King's Council, broke a window 
in his house, and sent for the diviner, to whom he 
related a story of his having been robbed of valu- 
ables during the night. Aymar indicated the 
broken window as the means whereby the thief had 
entered the house, and pointed out the window by 
which he had left it with the booty. As no such 
robbery had been committed, Aymar was turned 



yS The Dlvmzng Rod. 

out of the house as an impostor, A few similar 
cases brought him into such disrepute that he was 
obhged to leave Paris, and return to Grenoble. 

Some years after, he was made use of by the 
Marechal Montrevel, in his cruel pursuit of the 
Camisards. 

Was Aymar an impostor from first to last, or 
did his powers fail him in Paris? and was it only 
then that he had recourse to fraud? 

Much may be said in favor of either supposition. 
His expose at Paris tells heavily against him, but 
need not be regarded as conclusive evidence of im- 
posture throughout his career. If he really did 
possess the powers he claimed, it is not to be sup- 
posed that these existed in full vigor under all con- 
ditions ; and Paris is a place most unsuitable for 
testing them, built on artificial soil, and full of dis- 
turbing influences of every description. It has been 
remarked with others who used the rod, that their 
powers languished under excitement, and that the 
faculties had to be in repose, the attention to be 
concentrated on the subject of inquiry, or the ac- 
tion- — nervous, magnetic, or electrical, or what you 
will — was impeded. 



The Divining Rod, 79 

Now, Paris, visited for the first time by a poor 
peasant, its salons open to him, dazzling him with 
their splendor, and the novelty of finding himself in 
the midst of princes, dukes, marquises, and their 
families, not only may have agitated the country- 
man to such an extent as to deprive him of his 
peculiar faculty, but may have led him into simu- 
lating what he felt had departed from him, at the 
moment when he was under the eyes of the gran^ 
dees of the Court. We have analogous cases in 
Bleton and Angelique Cottin. The former was a 
hydroscope, who fell into convulsions whenever he 
passed over running water. This peculiarity was 
noticed in him when a child of seven years old. 
When brought to Paris, he failed signally to detect 
the presence of water conveyed underground by 
pipes and conduits, but he pretended to feel the 
influence of water where there certainly was none. 
Angelique Cottin was a poor girl, highly charged 
with electricity. Any one touching her received 
a violent shock ; one medical gentleman, having 
seated her on his knee, was knocked clean out of 
his chair by tl^e electric fluid, which thus exhibited 
its sense of propriety. But the electric condition 



8o The Divining Rod, 

of Angelique became feebler as she approached 
Paris, and failed her altogether in the capital. 

I believe that the imagination is the principal 
motive force in those who use the divining rod ; 
but whether it is so solely, I am unable to decide. 
The powers of nature are so mysterious and in- 
scrutable that we must be cautious in limiting 
them, under abnormal conditions, to the ordinary 
laws of experience. 

The manner in which the rod was used by cer- 
tain persons renders self-deception possible. The 
rod is generally of hazel, and is forked like a Y; 
the forefingers are placed against the diverging 




arms of the rod, and the elbows are brought back 
against the side ; thus the implement is held in 
front of the operator, delicately balanced before the 
pit of the stomach at a distance of about eight 
inches. Now, if the pressure of the balls of the 
digits be in the least relaxed, the stalk of the rod 



The Divining Rod. 8i 

will naturally fall. It has been assumed by some, 
that a restoration of the pressure will bring the 
stem up again, pointing towards the operator, and 
a little further pressure will elevate it into a per- 
pendicular position. A relaxation of force will 
again lower it, and thus the rotation observed in 
the rod be maintained. I confess myself unable to 
accomplish this. The lowering of the leg of the 
rod is easy enough, but no efforts of mine to pro- 
duce a revolution on its axis have as yet suc- 
ceeded. The muscles which would contract the 
fingers upon the arms of the stick, pass the shoul- 
der ; and it is worthy of remark that one of the 
medical men who witnessed the experiments made 
on Bleton the hydroscope, expressly alludes to a 
slight rising of the shoulders during the rotation of 
the divining rod. 

But the manner of using the rod was by no 
means identical in all cases. If, in all cases, it 
had simply been balanced between the fingers, 
some probability might be given to the sugges- 
tion above made, that the rotation was always 
effected by the involuntary action of the muscles. 

The usual manner of holding the rod, however, 
6 



82 The Divining Rod. 

precluded such a possibility. The most ordinary use 
consisted in taking a forked stick in such a manner 
that the palms were turned upwards, and the fingers :. 
closed upon the branching arms of the rod. Some 
required tliQ normal position of the rod to be hori- 
zontal, others elevated the point, others again de- _ 
pressed it. 

If the implement were straight, it was held in a 
similar manner, but the hands were brought some- 
what together, so as to produce a slight arc in the 
rod. Some who practised rhabdomancy sustained this 
species of rod between their thumbs and forefingers ; 
or else the thumb and forefingers were closed, and the 
rod rested on their points ; or again it reposed on the 
flat of the hand, or on the back, the hand being held 
vertically and the rod held in equilibrium. 

A third species of divining rod consisted in a 
straight staff cut in two : one extremity of the one 
half was hollowed out, the other half was sharpened 
at the end, and this end was inserted in the hollow, 
and the pointed stick rotated in the cavity. 

The way in which Bleton used his rod is thus 
minutely described : " He does not grasp it, nor 
warm it in his hands, and he does not regard with 



83 




POSITIONS OF THE HANDS. 

From " Lettres qui decouvrent rillnsion des Philosophes sur la Baguette." 
Paris, 1693. 



The Divining Rod, 85 

preference a hazel branch lately cut and full of sap. 
He places horizontally between his forefingers a rod 
of an}' kind given to him, or picked up in the road, 
of any sort of wood except elder, fresh or dry, not 
always forked, but sometimes merely bent. If it is 
straight, it rises slightly at the extremities by little 
jerks, but does not turn. If bent, it revolves on its 
axis with more or less rapidity, in more or less time, 
according to the quantity and current of the water. 
I counted from thirty to thirty-five revolutions in a 
minute, and afterwards as many as eighty. A 
curious phenomenon is, that Bleton is able to make 
the rod turn between another person's fingers, even 
without seeing it or touching it, by approaching his 
body towards it when his feet stand over a subter- 
ranean watercourse. It is true, however, that the 
motion is much less strong and less durable in other 
fingers than his own. If Bleton stood on his head, 
and placed the rod between his feet, though he felt 
strongly the peculiar sensations produced in him by 
flow^ing water, yet the rod remained stationary. If 
he were insulated on glass, silk, or wax, the sen- 
sations were less vivid, and the rotation of the stick 
ceased." 



86 The Divining Rod, 

But this experiment failed in Paris, under circum- 
stances which either proved that Bleton's imagina- 
tion produced the movement, or that his integrity 
was questionable. It is quite possible that in many- 
instances the action of the muscles is purely invol- 
untary, and is attributable to the imagination, so that 
the operator deceives himself as well as others. 

This is probably the explanation of the story of 
Mdlle. Olivet, a young lady of tender conscience, who 
was a skilful performer with the divining rod, but 
shrank from putting her powers in operation, lest she 
should be indulging in unlawful acts. She consulted 
the Pere Lebrun, author of a work already referred to 
in this paper, and he advised her to ask God to with- 
draw the power from her, if the exercise of it was 
harmful to her spiritual condition. She entered into 
retreat for two days, and prayed with fervor. Then 
she made her communion, asking God what had been 
recommended to her at the moment when she re- 
ceived the Plost. In the afternoon of the same 
day she made experiment with her rod, and found 
that it would no longer operate. The girl had 
strong faith in it before — a faith coupled with fear ; 
and as long as that faith was strong in her, the I'od 



The Divining Rod. 87 

moved ; now she believed that the faculty was taken 
from her ; and the power ceased with the loss of her 
faith. 

If the divining rod is put in motion by any other 
force except the involuntary action of the muscles, we 
must confine its powers to the property of indicating 
the presence of flowing water. There are numerous 
instances of hydroscopes thus detecting the existence 
of a spring, or of a subterranean watercourse ; the 
most remarkably endowed individuals of this descrip- 
tion are Jean-Jacques Parangue, born near Marseilles, 
in 1760, who experienced a horror when near watei 
which no one else perceived. He was endowed with 
the faculty of seeing water through the ground, says 
rAbbe Sauri, who gives his history. Jenny Leslie, a 
Scotch girl, about the same date claimed similar 
powers. In 1790, Pennet, a native of Dauphine, 
attracted attention in Italy, but when carefully tested 
by scientific men in Padua, his attempts to discover 
buried metals failed ; at Florence he was detected 
in an endeavor to find out by night what had been 
secreted to test his powers on the morrow. Vin- 
cent Amoretti was an Italian, who underwent peculiar 
sensations when brought in proximity to water, coal, 



88 The Divijting Rod. 

and salt; he was skilful in the use of the rod, but 
made no public exhibition of his powers. ' 

The rod is still employed, I have heard it asserted, 
by Cornish miners ; but I have never been able to 
ascertain that such is really the ca?se. The mining 
captains whom I have questioned invariably repu- 
diated all knowledge of its use. 

In Wiltshire, however, it is still employed for the 
purpose of detecting water ; and the following extract 
from a letter I have just received will show that 
it is still in vogue on the Continent : — 

" I believe the use of the divining rod for dis- 
covering springs of water has by no means been 
confined to mediaeval times; for I was personally 
acquainted with a lady, now deceased, who has suc- 
cessfully practised with it in this way. She was a 
very clever and accomplished woman ; Scotch by birth 
and education ; by no means credulous ; possibly a 
a little imaginative, for she wrote not unsuccessfully ; 
and of a remarkably open and straightforward dis- 
position. Captain C , her husband, had a large 

estate in Holstein, near Lubeck, supporting a consid- 
erable population ; and whether for the wants of the 
people or for the improvement of the land, it now 



The Divining Rod. 89 

and then happened that an additional well was 
needed. 

"On one of these occasions a man was sent for 
who made a regular profession of finding water by 
the divining rod ; there happened to be a large party 
staying at the house, and the whole company turned 
out to see the fun. The rod gave indications in the 
usual way, and water was ultimately found at the 

spot. Mrs* C , utterly sceptical, took the rod 

into her own hands to make experiment, believing 
that she would prove the man an impostor ; and she 
said afterwards she was never more frightened in her 
life than when it began to move, on her walking over 
the spring. Several other gentlemen and ladies tried 
it, but it was quite inactive in their hands. ' Well,' 
said the host to his wife, ' we shall have no occasion 
to send for the man again, as you are such an adept.' 

" Some months after this, water was wanted in 
another part of the estate, and it occurred to Mrs. 

C — that she would use the rod again. After some 

trials, it again gave decided indications, and a well 
was begun and carried down a very considerable 
depth. At last she began to shrink from incurring 
more expense, but the laborers had implicit faith ; and 



90 The Divining Rod, 

begged to be allowed to persevere. Very soon the 
wa^er burst up with such force that the men escaped 
with difficulty ; and this proved afterwards the most 
unfailing spring for miles round. 

" You will take the above for what it is worth ; the 
facts I have given are undoubtedly true, w^iatever 
conclusions may be drawn from them. I do not pro- 
pose that you should print my narrative, but I think 
in these cases personal testimony, even indirect, is 
more useful in forming one's opinion than a hundred 

old volumes. I did not hear it from Mrs. C 's 

own lips, but I was sufficiently acquainted with her to 
form a very tolerable estimate of her character ; and 
my wife, who has known her intimately from her 
own childhood, was in her younger days often staying 
wdth her for months together." 

I remember having been much perplexed by read- 
ing a series of experiments made with a pendulous 
ring over metals, by a Mr. Mayo : he ascertained that 
it oscillated in various directions under peculiar cir- 
cumstances, when suspended by a thread over the ball 
of the thumb. I instituted a series of experiments, 
and was surprised to find the ring vibrate in an unac- 
countable manner in opposite directions over different 



The Divining Rod, 91 

metals. On consideration, I closed my eyes whilst 
the ring was oscillating over gold, and on opening 
them I found that it had become stationary. I got a 
friend to change the metals whilst I was blindfolded 
— the ring no longer vibrated. I was thus enabled 
to judge of the involuntary action of muscles, quite 
sufficient to have deceived an eminent medical man 
like Mr. Mayo, and to have perplexed me till I suc- 
ceeded in solving the mystery.* 

* A similar series of experiments was undertaken, as I 
learned afterwards, by M. Chevreuil in Paris, with similar 
results. 



92 



®l)e Qtvtn jSk^pers of (2pl)€0tt0. 

ONE of the most picturesque myths of ancient 
days is that which forms the subject of this 
article. It is thus told by Jacques de Voragine, in 
his '' Legenda Aurea : " — 

" The seven sleepers were natives of Ephesus. 
The Emperor Decius, who persecuted the Christians, 
having come to Ephesus, ordered the erection of 
temples in the city, that all might come and sacrifice 
before him ; and he commanded that the Christians 
should be sought out and given their choice, either to 
worship the idols, or to die. So great was the con- 
sternation in the city, that the friend denounced his 
friend, the father his son, and the son his father. 

'' Now there were in Ephesus seven Christians, 
Maximian, Malchus, Marcian, Dionysius, John, Sera- 
pion, and Constantine by name. These refused to 
sacrifice to the idols, and remained in their houses 



The Seven Sleepers of Ephesus, 95 

praying and fasting. They were accused before 
Decius, and they confessed themselves to be Chris- 
tians. However, the emperor gave them a little 
time to consider what line they would adopt. They 
took advantage of this reprieve to dispense their 
goods among the poor, and then they retired, all 
seven, to Mount Celion, where they determined to 
conceal themselves. 

" One of their number, Malchus, in the disguise 
of a physician, went to the town to obtain victuals * 
Decius, who had been absent from Ephesus for a 
little while, returned, and gave orders for the seven 
to be sought. Malchus, having escaped from the 
town, fled, full of fear, to his comrades, and told 
them of the emperor's fury. They were much 
alarmed ; and Malchus handed them the loaves he 
had bought, bidding them eat, that, fortified by the 
food, they might have courage in the time of trial. 
They ate, and then, as they sat weeping and speak- 
ing to one another, by the will of God they fell 
asleep. 

" The pagans sought everywhere, but could not 
find them, and Decius was greatly irritated at their 
escape. He had their parents brought before him, 



94 ^'^^ Seven Sleepers of Ephesus. 

and threatened them with death if they did not 
reveal the place of concealment; but they could 
only answer that the seven young men had distrib- 
uted their goods to the poor, and that they were 
quite ignorant as to their whereabouts. 

" Decius, thinking it possible that they might be 
hiding in a cavern, blocked up the mouth with 
stones, that they might perish of hunger. 

" Three hundred and sixty years passed, and in 
the thirtieth year of the reign of Theodosius, there 
broke forth a heresy denying the resurrection of 
the dead. ... 

"Now, it happened that an Ephesian was build- 
ing a stable on the side of Mount Celion, and finding 
a pile of stones handy, he took them for his edifice, 
and thus opened the mouth of the cave. Then the 
seven sleepers awoke, and it was to them as if they 
had slept but a single night. They began to ask 
Malchus what decision Decius had given concern- 
ing them. 

" ' He is going to hunt us down, so as to force 
us to sacrifice to the idols,' was his reply. ' God 
knows,' replied Maximian, ' we shall never do that.' 
Then exhorting his companions, he urged Malchus 



The Seven Sleepers of Ephesus, 95 

to go back to the town to buy some more bread, 
and at the same time to obtain fresh information. 
Malchus took five coins and left the cavern. On 
seeing the stones he w^as filled w^ith astonishment ; 
however, he went on towards the city ; but what 
was his bewilderment, on approaching the gate, to 
see over it a cross ! He went to another gate, and 
there he beheld the same sacred sign ; and so he 
observed it over each gate of the city. He believed 
that he was suffering from the efifects of a dream. 
Then he entered Ephesus, rubbing his eyes, and he 
walked to a baker's shop. He heard people using 
our Lord's name, and he was the more perplexed. 
' Yesterday, no one dared pronounce the name of 
Jesus, and now it is on every one's lips. Wonder- 
ful ! I can hardly believe myself to be in Ephesus.' 
He asked a passer-by the name of the city, and on 
being told it was Ephesus, he was thunderstruck. 
Now he entered a ^baker's shop, and laid down his 
money. The baker, examining the coin, inquired 
whether he had found a treasure, and began to 
whisper to some others in the shop. The youth, 
thinking that he was discovered, and that they W3re 
about to conduct him to the emperor, implored them 



g6 The Seven Sleepe7's of Ephesus. 

to let him alone, offering to leave loaves and money 
if he might only be suffered to escape. But the 
shop-men, seizing him, said, ' Whoever you are, 
you have found a treasure ; shov^ us where it is, 
that w^e may share it with you, and then we will 
hide you.' Malchus was too frightened to answer. 
So they put a rope round his neck, and drew him 
through the streets into the market-place. The news 
soon spread that the young man had discovered a 
great treasure, and there was presently a vast crowd 
about him. He stoutly protested his innocence. No 
one recognized him, and his eyes, ranging over the 
faces which surrounded him, could not see one which 
he had known, or which was in the slightest degree 
familiar to him. 

" St. Martin, the bishop, and Antipater, the gov- 
ernor, having heard of the excitement, ordered the 
young man to be brought before them, along with 
the bakers. 

'' The bishop and the governor asked him where 
he had found the treasure, and he replied that he 
had found none, but that the few coins were from 
his own purse. He was next asked whence he 
came. He replied that he was a native of Ephesus, 
' if this be Ephesus.' 



The Seven Sleepers of Ephesus. 97 

"'Send for your relations — your parents, if they 
live here,' ordered the governor. 

" ' They live here, certainly,' replied the youth ; 
and he mentioned their names. No such names 
were known in the town. Then the governor ex- 
claimed, ' How dare you say that this money 
belonged to your parents when it dates back three 
hundred and seventy-seven years,* and is as old as 
the beginning of the reign of Decius, and it is 
utterly unlike our modern coinage? Do you think 
to impose on the old men and sages of Ephesus? 
Believe me, I shall make you suffer the severities 
of the law till you show where you made the dis- 
covery.' 

" ' I implore you,' cried Malchus, ' in the name 
of God, answer me a few questions, and then I 
will answer yours. Where is the Emperor Decius 
gone to?' 

" The bishop answered, ' My son, there is no 
emperor of that name ; he who was thus called 
died long ago.' 

" Malchus replied, ' All I hear perplexes me more 
and more. Follow me, and I will show you my 

* This calculation is sadly inaccurate. 

7 



98 The Seven Sleepers of Ephesus. 

comrades, who fled with me into a cave of Mount 
Celion, only yesterday, to escape the cruelty of 
Decius. I will lead you to them.' 

" The bishop turned to the governor. ' The hand 
of God is here,' he said. Then they followed, and 
a great crowd after them. And Malchus entered 
first into the cavern to his companions, and the 
bishop after him. . . . And there they saw the 
martyrs seated in the cave, with their faces fresh 
and blooming as roses ; so all fell down and glori- 
fied God. The bishop and the governor sent notice 
to Theodosius, and he hurried to Ephesus. All 
the inhabitants met him and conducted him to the 
cavern. As soon as the saints beheld the emperor, 
their faces shone like the sun, and the emperor 
gave thanks unto God, and embraced them, and 
said, ' I see you, as though I saw the Savior restor- 
ing Lazarus.' Maximian replied, ' Believe us !, for 
the faith's sake, God has resuscitated us before the 
great resurrection day, in order that you may be- 
lieve firmly in the resurrection of the dead. For 
as the child is in its mother's womb living and 
not suffering, so have we lived without suffering, 
fast asleep.' And having thus spoken, they bowed 



Th^ Seven Sleepers of Ephesus, 99 

their heads, and their souls returned to their Maker. 
The emperor, rising, bent over them and embraced 
them weeping. He gave them orders for golden 
reliquaries to be made, but that night they ap- 
peared to him in a dream, and said that hitherto 
they had slept in the earth, and that in the earth 
they desired to sleep on till God should raise them 
again." 

Such is the beautiful story. It seems to have 
travelled to us from the East. Jacobus Sarugiensis, 
a Mesopotamian bishop, in the fifth or sixth cen- 
tury, is said to have been the first to commit it to 
writing. Gregory of Tours (De Glor. Mart. i. 9) 
was perhaps the first to introduce it to Europe. 
Dionysius of Antioch (ninth century) told the story 
in Syrian, and Photius of Constantinople repro- 
duced it, with the remark that Mahomet had 
adopted it into the Koran. Metaphrastus alludes 
to it as well ; in the tenth century Eutychius in- 
serted it in his annals of Arabia ; it is found in 
the Coptic and the Maronite books, and several 
early historians, as Paulus Diaconus, Nicephorus, 
&c., have inserted it in their works. 



lOO The Seven Sleepers of Ephesus. 

A poem on the Seven Sleepers was composed 
by a trouvere named Chardri, and is mentioned by 
M. Fr. Michel in his " Rapports au Ministre de 
rinstruction Public ; " a German poem on the same 
subject, of the thirteenth century, in 935 verses, has 
been published by M. Karajan ; and the Spanish 
poet, Augustin Morreto, composed a drama on it, 
entitled " Los Siete Durmientes," v^hich is inserted 
in the 19th volume of the rare work, " Comedias 
Nuevas Escogidas de los Mejores Ingenios." 

Mahomet has somewhat improved on the story. 
He has made the Sleepers prophesy his coming, 
and he has given them a dog named Kratim, or 
Kratimir, which sleeps with them, and which is 
endowed with the gift of prophecy. 

As a special favor this dog is to be one of the 
ten animals to be admitted into his paradise, the 
others being Jonah's whale, Solomon's ant, Ish- 
mael's ram, Abraham's calf, the Qiieen of Sheba's 
ass, the prophet Salech's camel, Moses' ox, Belkis' 
cuckoo, and Mahomet's ass. 

It was perhaps too much for the Seven Sleepers 
to ask, that their bodies should be left to rest in 
earth. In ages when saintly relics were valued 



The Seven Sleepers of Ephesus, loi 

above gold and precious stones, their request was 
sure to be shelved ; and so w^e find that their 
remains were conveyed to Marseilles in a large 
stone sarcophagus, which is still exhibited in St. 
Victor's Church. In the Musaeum Victorium at 
Rome is a curious and ancient representation of 
them in a cement of sulphur and plaster. Their 
names are engraved beside them, together with 
certain attributes. Near Constantine and John are 
two clubs, near Maximian a knotty club, near 
Malchus and Martini an two axes, near Serapion 
a burning torch, and near Danesius or Dionysius 
a great nail, such as those spoken of by Horace 
(Lib. I, Od. 3) and St. Paulinus (Nat. 9, or Carm. 
24) as having been used for torture. 

In this group of figures, the seven are repre- 
sented as young, without beards, and indeed in an- 
cient martyrologies they are frequently called boys. 

It has been inferred from this curious plaster 
representation, that the seven may have suffered 
under Decius, A. D. 250, and have been buried in 
the afore-mentioned cave ; whilst the discovery and 
translation of their relics under Theodosius, in 479, 
may have given rise to the fable. And this I think 



I02 The Seven Sleeper's of Ephesus. 

probable enough. The story of long sleepers and 
the number seven connected with it is ancient 
enough, and dates from heathen mythology. 

Like many another ancient myth, it was laid 
hold of by Christian hands and baptized. 

Pliny relates the story of Epimenides the epic 
poet, who, when tending his sheep one hot day, 
wearied and oppressed with slumber, retreated into 
a cave, where he fell asleep. After fifty-seven years 
he awoke, and found every thing changed. His 
brother, whom he had left a stripling, was now a 
hoary man. 

Epimenides was reckoned one of the seven sages 
by those who exclude Periander. He flourished in 
the time of Solon. After his death, at the age of 
two hundred and eighty-nine, he was revered as a 
god, and honored especially by the Athenians. 

This story is a version of the older legend of 
the perpetual sleep of the shepherd Endymion, who 
was thus preserved in unfading youth and beauty 
by Jupiter. 

According to an Arabic legend, St. George thrice 
rose from his grave, and was thrice slain. 

In Scandinavian mythology we have Siegfrid or 



The Seveii Sleepers of Ephesus, 103 

Sigurd thus resting, and awaiting his call to come 
forth and fight. Charlemagne sleeps in the Oden- 
berg in Hess, or in the Untersberg near Salzburg, 
seated on his throne, with his crown on his head 
and his sword at his side, waiting till the times 
of Antichrist are fulfilled, when he will wake and 
burst forth to avenge the blood of the saints. Qgier 
the Dane, or Olger Dansk, will in like manner 
shake off' his slumber and come forth from the 
dream-land of Avallon to avenge the right — O 
that he had shown himself in the Schleswig- 
Holstein war! 

Well do I remember, as a child, contemplating 
with wondering awe the great Kyff'hauserberg in 
Thuringia, for therein, I was told, slept Frederic 
Barbarossa and his six knights. A shepherd once 
penetrated into the heart of the mountain by a 
cave, and discovered therein a hall where sat the 
emperor at a stone table, and his red beard had 
grown through the slab. At the tread of the 
shepherd Frederic awoke from his slumber, and 
asked, " Do the ravens still fly over the moun- 
^>.ins ? " 

"Sire, they do." 



I04 The Seven Sleepers of Ephesus. 

" Then we must sleep another hundred years." 

But when his beard has wound itself thrice 
round the table, then will the emperor awake 
with his knights, and rush forth to release Ger- 
many from its bondage, and exalt it to the first 
place among the kingdoms of Europe. 

In Switzerland slumber three Tells at Rutli, near 
the Vierwaldstatter-see, waiting for the hour of 
their country's direst need. A shepherd crept into 
the cave where they rest. The third Tell rose 
and asked the time. "Noon," replied the shepherd 
lad. " The time is not yet come," said Tell, and 
lay down again. 

In Scotland, beneath the Eilden hills, sleeps 
Thomas of Erceldoune ; the murdered French who 
fell in the Sicilian Vespers at Palermo are also 
slumbering till the time is come when they may 
wake to avenge themselves. When Constantinople 
fell into the hands of the Turks, a priest was 
celebrating the sacred mysteries at the great silver 
altar of St. Sophia. The celebrant cried to God to 
protect the sacred host from profanation. Then the 
wall opened, and he entered, bearing the Blessed 
Sacrament. It closed on him, and there he is 



The Seven Sleepers of Ephesus. 105 

sleeping with his head bowed before the Body of 
Our Lord, waiting till the Turk is cast out of 
Constantinople, and St. Sophia is released from 
its profanation. God speed the time ! 

In Bohemia sleep three miners deep in the heart 
of the Kuttenberg. In North America Rip Van 
Winkle passed twenty years slumbering in the 
Katskill mountains. In Portugal it is believed 
that Sebastian, the chivalrous young monarch who 
did his best to ruin his country by his rash inva- 
sion of Morocco, is sleeping somewhere ; but he 
will wake again to be his country's deliverer in the 
hour of need. Olaf Tryggvason is waiting a simi- 
lar occasion in Norway. Even Napoleon Bonaparte 
is believed among some of the French peasantry 
to be sleeping on in a like manner. 

St. Hippolytus relates that St. John the Divine 
is slumbering at Ephesus, and Sir John Mande- 
ville relates the circumstances as follows : " From 
Pathmos men gone unto Ephesim a fair citee and 
nyghe to the see. And there dyede Seynte Johne, 
and was buryed behynde the highe Awtiere, in 
a toumbe. And there is a faire chirche. For 
Christene mene weren wont to holden that place 



io6 The Seven Slee^pers of Ephesus. 

alweyes. And in the tombe of Seynt John is 
noughte but manna, that is clept Aungeles mete. 
For his body was translated into Paradys. And 
Turkes holden now alle that place and the citee 
and the Chirche. And all Asie the lesse is yclept 
Turkye. And ye shalle undrestond, that Seynt 
Johne bid make his grave there in his Lyf, and 
leyd himself there-inne all quyk. And therefore 
somme men seyn, that he dyed noughte, but that 
he resteth there till the Day of Doom. And for- 
suothe there is a gret marveule : For men may see 
there the erthe of the tombe apertly many tymes 
steren and moven, as there weren quykke thinges 
undre." The connection of this legend of St. John 
with Ephesus may have had something to do with 
turning the seven martyrs of that city into seven 
sleepers. 

The annals of Iceland relate that, in 1403, a Finn 
of the name of Fethmingr, living in Halogaland, in 
the North of Norway, happening to enter a cave, 
fell asleep, and woke not for three whole years, 
lying with his bow and arrows at his side, un- 
touched by bird or beast. 

There certainly are authentic accounts of persons 



The Seven Sleepers of Ephesus. 107 

having slept for an extraordinary length of time, 
but I shall not mention any, as I believe the legend 
we are considering, not to have been an exaggera- 
tion of facts, but a Christianized myth of paganism. 
The fact of the number seven being so prominent 
in many of the tales, seems to lead to this con- 
clusion. Barbarossa changes his position ever}; 
seven years. Charlemagne starts in his chair at 
similar intervals. Olger Dansk stamps his iron 
mace on the floor once every seven years. Olaf 
Redbeard in Sv^eden uncloses his eyes at precisely 
the same distances of time. 

I believe that the mythological core of this pic- 
turesque legend is the repose of the earth through 
the seven winter months. In the North, Frederic 
and Charlemagne certainly replace Odin. 

The German and Scandinavian still heathen le- 
gends represent the heroes as about to issue forth 
for the defence of Fatherland in the hour of direst 
need. The converted and Christianized tale brings 
the martyr youths forth in the hour when a heresy 
is afflicting the Church, that they may destroy the 
heresy by their witness to the truth of the Resur- 
rection. 



io8 The Seven Sleepers of Ephesus. 

If there is something majestic in the heathen 
myth, there are singular grace and beauty in the 
Christian tale, teaching, as it does, such a glorious 
doctrine ; but . it is surpassed in delicacy by the 
modern form which the same myth has assumed — 
a form which is a real transformation, leaving the 
doctrine taught the same. It has been made into 
a romance by Hoffman, and is versified by Trinius. 
I may perhaps be allov^ed to translate with some 
freedom the poem of the latter : — 

In an ancient shaft of Falun 

Year by year a body lay, 
God-preserved, as though a treasure, 

Kept unto the waking day. 

Not the turmoil, nor the passions, 

Of the busy world o'erhead. 
Sounds of war, or peace rejoicings. 

Could disturb the placid dead. 

Once a youthful miner, whistling, 
Hewed the chamber, now his tomb: 

Crash! the rocky fragments tumbled, 
Closed him in abysmal gloom. 

Sixty years passed by, ere miners 
Toiling, hundred fathoms deep, 

Broke upon the shaft where rested 
That poor miner in his sleep. 



The Seven Sleepers of Efhesus, 109 

As the gold-grains lie untarnished 

In the dingy soil and sand, 
Till they gleam and flicker, stainless, 

In the digger's sifting hand ; — 

As the gem in virgin brilliance 

Rests, till ushered into day; — 
So uninjured, uncorrupted. 

Fresh and fair the body lay, 

And the miners bore it upward, 

Laid it in the yellow sun ; 
Up, from out the neighboring houses, 

Fast the curious peasants run. 

"Who is he?" with eyes they question; 

"Who is he?" thej' ask aloud; 
Hush ! a wizened hag comes hobbling, 

Panting, through the wondering crowd. 

! the cry, — half joy, half sorrow, — 
As she flings her at his side : 

"John! the sweetheart of my girlhood. 
Here am I, am I, thy bride. 

" Time on thee has left no traces. 
Death from wear has shielded thee; 

1 am ag6d, worn, and wasted, 
O! what life has done to me ! " 

Then his smooth, unfurrowed forehead 
Kissed that ancient withered crone; 

And the Death which had divided 
Now united them in one. 



no 



iDUliam Ml 

I SUPPOSE that most people regard William 
Tell, the hero of Switzerland, as an historical 
character, and visit the scenes made memorable by 
his exploits, with corresponding interest, when they 
undertake the regular Swiss round. 

It is one of the painful duties of the antiquarian 
to dispel many a popular belief, and to probe the 
groundlessness of many an historical statement. The 
antiquarian is sometimes disposed to ask with Pi- 
late, ''What is truth?" w^hen he finds historical 
facts crumbling beneath his touch into mythological 
fables ; and he soon learns to doubt and question 
the most emphatic declarations of, and claims to, 
reliability. 

Sir Walter Raleigh, in his prison, was composing 
the second volume of his History of the World. 
Leaning on the sill of his window, he meditated 
on the duties of the historian to mankind, when 



William Tell, ill 

suddenly his attention was attracted by a disturb- 
ance in the court-yard before his cell. He saw 
one man strike another whom he supposed by his 
dress to be an officer ; the latter at once drew his 
sword, and ran the former through the body. The 
wounded man felled his adversary with a stick, 
and then sank upon the pavement. At this junc- 
ture the guard came up, and carried off the officer 
insensible, and then the corpse of the man who 
had been run through. 

Next day Raleigh was visited by an intimate 
friend, to whom he related the circumstances of 
the quarrel and its issue. To his astonishment, 
his friend unhesitatingly declared that the prisoner 
had mistaken the whole series of incidents which 
had passed before his eyes. 

The supposed officer was not an officer at all, 
but the servant of a foreign ambassador; it was he 
who had dealt the first blow ; he had not drawn 
his sword, but the other had snatched it from his 
side, and had run kim through the body before 
any one could interfere ; whereupon a stranger 
from among the crowd knocked the murderer 
down with his stick, and some of the foreigners 



112 William Tell. 

belonging to the ambassador's retinue carried off 
the corpse. The friend of Raleigh added that 
government had ordered the arrest and immediate 
trial of the murderer, as the man assassinated was 
one of the principal servants of the Spanish am- 
bassador. 

" Excuse me," said Raleigh, " but I cannot have 
been deceived as you suppose, for I v^as eye-wit- 
ness to the events which took place under my 
own window, and the man fell there on that spot 
where you see a paving-stone standing up above 
the rest." 

" My dear Raleigh," replied his friend, " I was 
sitting on that stone when the fray took place, and 
I received this slight scratch on my cheek in 
snatching the sword from the murderer ; and upon 
my word of honor, you have been deceived upon 
every particular." 

Sir Walter, when alone, took up the second 
volume of his History, which was in MS., and 
contemplating it, thought — "If I cannot believe 
my own eyes, how can I be assured of the truth 
of a tithe of the events which happened ages be- 



William Tell. 113 

fore I was born?" and he flung the manuscript 
into the fire,* 

Now, I think that I can show that the story of 
William Tell is as fabulous as — what shall I say? 
any other historical event. 

It is almost too well known to need repetition. 

In the year 1307, Gessler, Vogt of the Emperor 
Albert of Hapsburg, set a hat on a pole, as sym- 
bol of imperial power, and ordered every one who 
passed by to do obeisance towards it. A moun- 
taineer of the name of Tell boldly traversed the 
space before it without saluting the abhorred sym- 
bol. By Gessler's command he was at once seized 
and brought before him. As Tell was known to 
be an expert archer, he was ordered, by way of 
punishment, to shoot an apple off the head of his 
own son. Finding remonstrance vain, he submit- 
ted. The apple was placed on the child's head. 
Tell bent his bow, the arrow sped, and apple and 
arrow fell together to the ground. But the Vogt no- 
ticed that Tell, before shooting, had stuck another 
arrow into his belt, and he inquired the reason. 

* This anecdote is taken from the Journal de Paris, May, 
1787; but whence did the Jouriial obtain it? 

8 



114 William Tell. 

"It was for you," replied the sturdy archer. 
" Had I shot my child, know that it would not 
have missed your heart/' 

This event, observe, took place in the beginning 
of the fourteenth century. But Saxo Grammaticus, 
a Danish writer of the twelfth century, tells the 
story of a hero of his own country, who lived in 
the tenth century. He relates the incident in horri- 
ble style as follows : — 

" Nor ought what follows to be enveloped in 
silence. Toki, who had for some time been in the 
king's service, had, by his deeds, surpassing those 
of his comrades, made enemies of his virtues. One 
day, when he had drunk too much, he boasted to 
those who sat at table with him, that his skill in 
archery was such, that with the first shot of an 
arrow he could hit the smallest apple set on the 
top of a stick at a considerable distance. His de- 
tractors, hearing this, lost no time in conveying 
what he had said to the king (Harald Bluetooth). 
But the wickedness of this monarch soon trans- 
formed the confidence of the father to the jeopardy 
of the son, for he ordered the dearest pledge of his 
life to stand in place of the stick, from whom, if 



William Tell. 115 

the utterer of the boast did not at his first shot 
strike down the apple, he should with his head 
pay the penalty of having made an idle boast. The 
command of the king urged the soldier to do this, 
which was so much more than he had underta- 
ken, the detracting artifices of the others having 
taken advantage of words spoken when he was 
hardly sober. As soon as the boy was led forth, 
Toki carefully admonished him to receive the 
whir of the arrow as calmly as possible, with at- 
tentive ears, and without moving his head, lest 
by a slight motion of the body he should frustrate 
the experience of his well-tried skill. He also 
made him stand with his back towards him, lest 
he should be frightened at the sight of the arrow. 
Then he drew three arrows from his quiver, and 
the very first he shot struck the proposed mark. 
Toki being asked by the king why he had taken 
so many more arrows out of his quiver, when he 
was to make but one trial with his bow, ' That T 
might avenge on thee,' he replied, 'the error of the 
first, by the points of the others, lest my innocence 
might happen to be aflflicted, and thy injustice go 
unpunished.' " 



Ii6 William TelL 



1 

tho " 



The same incident is told of Egil, brother of tho 
mythical Velundr, in the Saga of Thidrik. 

In Norwegian history also it appears with varia- 
tions again and again. It is told of King Olaf the 
vSaint (d. 1030), that, desiring the conversion of a 
brave heathen named Eindridi, he competed with 
him in various athletic sports ; he swam with 
him, wrestled, and then shot with him. The king 
dared Eindridi to strike a writing-tablet from off 
his son's head, with an arrow. Eindridi prepared 
to attempt the difficult shot. The king bade two 
men bind the eyes of the child and hold the 
napkin, so that he might not move when he heard 
the whistle of the arrow. The king aimed first, 
and the arrow grazed the lad's head. Eindridi 
then prepared to shoot ; but the mother of the boy 
interfered, and persuaded the king to abandon this 
dangerous test of skill. In this version, also, Ein- 
dridi is prepared to revenge himself on the king, 
should the child be injured. 

But a closer approximation still to the Tell myth 
is found in the life of Hemingr, another Norse 
archer, who was challenged by King Harald, 
Sigurd's son (d. 1066). The story is thus told: — 



William Tell, 117 

" The island was densely overgrown with wood, 
and the people went into the forest. The king 
took a spear and set it with its point in the soil, 
then he laid an arrow on the string and shot up 
into the air. The arrow turned in the air and 
came down upon the spear-shaft and stood up in 
it. Hemingr took another arrow and iShot up ; his 
was lost to sight for some while, but it came back 
and pierced the nick of the king's arrow. . . . 
Then the king took a knife and stuck it into an 
oak ; he next drew his bow and planted an arrow 
in the haft of the knife. Thereupon Hemingr took 
his arrows. The king stood by him and said, 
' They are all inlaid with gold ; you are a capital 
workman.' Hemingr answered, ' They are not my 
manufacture, but are presents.' He shot, and his 
arrow cleft the haft, and the point entered the 
socket of the blade. 

" ' We must have a keener contest,' said the 
king, taking an arrow and flushing with anger ; 
then he laid the arrow on the string and drew his 
bow to the farthest, so that the horns were nearly 
brought to meet. Away flashed the arrow, and 
pierced a tender twig. All said that this was a 



Il8 William TelL 

most astonishing feat of dexterity. But Hemingr 
shot from a greater distance, and split a hazel nut. 
All were astonished to see this. Then said the king, 
' Take a nut and set it on the head of your brother 
Bjorn, and aim it at from precisely the same distance. 
If you miss the mark, then your life goes.' 

'' Hemingr answered, ' Sire, my life is at your 
disposal, but I w^ill not adventure that shot.' Then 
out spake Bjorn — ' Shoot, brother, rather than die 
yourself.' Hemingr said, ' Have you the pluck to 
stand quite still without shrinking?' ' I will do my 
best,' said Bjorn. ' Then let the king stand by,' said 
Hemingr, ' and let him see whether I touch the nut.* 

'' The king agreed, and bade Oddr Ufeigs' son 
stand by Bjorn, and see that the shot was fair. 
Hemingr then went to the spot fixed for him by 
the king, and signed himself with the cross, saying, 
' God be my witness that I had rather die myself 
than injure my brother Bjorn ; let all the blame rest 
on King Harald.' 

" Then Hemingr flung his spear. The spear went 
straight to the mark, and passed between the nut and 
the crown of tlie lad, who was not in the least injured. 
It flew farther, and stopped not till it fell. 



William Tell. 119 

" Then the king came up and asked Oddr what he 
thought about the shot." 

Years after, this risk was revenged upon the hard- 
hearted monarch. In the battle of Stamfordbridge 
an arrow from a skilled archer penetrated the wind- 
pipe of the king, and it is supposed to have sped, 
observes the Saga writer, from the bow of Hemingr, 
then in the service of the English monarch. 

The story is related somewhat differently in the 
Faroe Isles, and is told of Geyti, Aslak's son. The 
same Harald asks his men if they know who is his 
match in strength. " Yes," they reply ; " there is a 
peasant's son in the uplands, Geyti, son of Aslak, who 
is the strongest of men." Forth goes the king, and at 
last rides up to the house of Aslak. " And where is 
your youngest son ? " 

" Alas ! alas ! he lies under the green sod of Kolrin 
kirkgarth." Come, then, and show me his corpse, 
old man, that I may judge whether he was as stout 
of limb as men say." 

The father puts the king off with the excuse that 
among so many dead it would be hard to find his 
boy. So the king rides away over the heath. He 
meets a stately man returning from the chase, with 



I20 William TelL 

a bow over his shoulder. '^And who art thou, 
friend?" '' Geyti, Aslak's son." The dead man, 
in short, alive and well. The king tells him he has 
heard of his prowess, and is come to match his 
strength with him. So Gej^ti and the king try a 
swimming-match. 

The king swims well ; but Geyti swims better, and 
in the end gives the monarch such a ducking, that he 
is borne to his house devoid of sense and motion. 
Harald swallows his anger, as he had swallowed the 
water, and bids Geyti shoot a hazel nut from off his 
brother's head. Aslak's son consents, and invites the 
king into the forest to witness his dexterity, 

" On the string the shaft he laid, 
And God hath heard his prayer; 
He shot the little nut away, 
Nor hurt the lad a hair." 

Next day the king sends for the skilful bowman : •— 

**List thee, Geyti, Aslak's son, 
And truly tell to me. 
Wherefore hadst thou arrows twain 
In the wood yestreen with thee?" 

' The bowman replies, — 



William TelL I3i 

** Therefore had I arrows twain 
Yestreen in the wood with me, 
Had I but hurt mj brother dear, 
The other had pierced thee." 

A very similar tale is told also in the celebrated 
Malleus Maleficarum of a man named Puncher, with 
this difference, that a coin is placed on the lad's head 
instead of an apple or a nut. The person who had 
dared Puncher to the test of skill, inquires the use 
of the second arrow in his belt, and receives the usual 
answer, that if the first arrow had missed the coin, 
the second would have transfixed a certain heart 
which was destitute of natural feeling. 

We have, moreover, our English version of the 
same story in the venerable ballad of William of 
Cloudsley. 

The Finn ethnologist Castren obtained the follow- 
ing tale in the Finnish village of Uhtuwa : — 

A fight took place between some freebooters and 
the inhabitants of the village of Alajawi. The rob- 
bers plundered every house, and carried oflf amongst 
their captives an old man. As they proceeded with 
their spoils along the strand of the lake, a lad of 
twelve years old appeared from among the reeds on 



122 William Tell. 

the opposite bank, armed with a bow, and amply 
provided with arrows ; he threatened to shoot down 
the captors unless the old man, his father, were re- 
stored to him. The robbers mockingly replied that 
the aged man would be given to him if he could shoot 
an apple off his head. The boy accepted the chal- 
lenge, and on successfully accomplishing it, the sur- 
render of the venerable captive was made. 

Farid-Uddin Attar was a Persian dealer in per- 
fumes, born in the year 1119. He one day was so 
impressed with the sight of a dervish, that he sold his 
possessions, and followed righteousness. He com- 
posed the poem Mantic Uttair, or the language of 
birds. Observe, the Persian Attar lived at the same 
time as the Danish Saxo, and long before the birth 
of Tell. Curiously enough, we find a trace of the 
Tell myth in the pages of his poem. According to 
him, however, the king shoots the apple from the 
head of a beloved page, and the lad dies from sheer 
fright, though the arrow does not even graze his 
skin. 

The coincidence of finding so many versions of the 
same story scattered through countries as remote as 
Persia and Iceland, Switzerland and Denmark, proves, 



William TelL 123 

I think, that it can in no way be regarded as history, 
but is rather one of the numerous household myths 
common to the whole stock of Aryan nations. Prob- 
ably, some one more acquainted with Sanskrit litera- 
ture than myself, and with better access to its unpub- 
lished stores of fable and legend, will some day light 
on an early Indian tale corresponding to that so 
prevalent among other branches of the same family. 
The coincidence of the Tell myth being discovered 
among the Finns is attributable to Russian or Swedish 
influence. I do not regard it as a primeval Turanian, 
but as an Aryan story, which, like an erratic block, 
is found deposited on foreign soil far from the moun- 
tain whence it was torn. 

German mythologists, I suppose, consider the myth 
to represent the manifestation of some natural phe- 
nomena, and the individuals of the story to be imper- 
sonifications of natural forces. Most primeval stories 
were thus constructed, and their origin is traceable 
enough. In Thorn-rose, for instance, who can fail 
to see the earth goddess represented by the sleeping 
beauty in her long winter slumber, only returning to 
life when kissed by the golden-haired sun-god PhoS' 
bus or Baldur? But the Tell myth has not its sig« 



124 William Tell, 

nification thus painted on the surface ; and those who 
suppose Gessler or Harald to be the power of evil 
and darkness, — the bold archer to be the storm-cloud 
with his arrow of lightning and his iris bow, bent 
against the sun, which is resting like a coin or a 
golden apple on the edge of the horizon, are over- 
straining their theories, and exacting too much from 
our credulity. 

In these pages and elsewhere I have shown how 
some of the ancient myths related by the whole 
Aryan family of nations are reducible to allegori- 
cal explanations of certain well-known natural phe- 
nomena ; but I must protest against the manner in 
which our German friends fasten rapaciously upon 
every atom of history, sacred and profane, and de- 
monstrate all heroes to represent the sun ; all villains 
to be the demons of night or winter ; all sticks and 
spears and arrows to be the lightning ; all cows 
and sheep and dragons and swans to be clouds. 

In a work on the superstition of Werewolves, I 
have entered into this subject with some fulness, 
and am quite prepared to admit the premises upon 
which mythologists construct their theories ; at the 
same time I am not disposed to run to the exti'ava- 



IVillzam Tell, 125 

gant lengths reached by some of the most enthusiastic 
German scholars. A wholesome warning to these 
gentlemen was given some years ago by an ingenious 
French ecclesiastic, who wrote the following argu- 
ment to prove that Napoleon Bonaparte was a myth- 
ological character. Archbishop Whately's '*• Historic 
Doubts " was grounded on a totally different line of 
argument ; I subjoin the other, as a curiosity and as 
a caution. 

Napoleon is, says the writer, an impersonification 
of the sun. 

I. Between the name Napoleon and Apollo, or 
Apoleon, the god of the sun, there is but a trifling 
difference ; indeed, the seeming difference is lessened, 
if we take the spelling of his name from the column 
of the Place Vendome, where it stands Neapoleo. 
But this syllable Ne prefixed to the name of the sun- 
god is of importance ; like the rest of the name it is 
of Greek origin, and is ^^ or i^a*, a particle of affirma- 
tion, as though indicating Napoleon as the very true 
Apollo, or sun. 

His other name, Bonaparte, makes this apparent 
connection between the French hero and the lumi- 
nary of the firmament 'conclusively certain. The day 



126 William Tell. 

has its two parts, the good and luminous portion, and 
that which is bad and dark. To the sun belongs the 
good part, to the moon and stars belongs the bad 
portion. It is therefore natural that Apollo or Ne- 
Apoleon should receive the surname of Bonapai^te. 

2. Apollo was born in Delos, a Mediterranean 
island ; Napoleon in Corsica, an island in the same 
sea. According to Pausanias, Apollo was an Egyp- 
tian deity ; and in the mythological history of the 
fabulous Napoleon we find the hero in Egypt, re- 
garded by the inhabitants with veneration, and 
receiving their homage. 

3. The mother of Napoleon was said to be Letitia, 
which signifies joy, and is an impersonification of 
the dawn of light dispensing joy and gladness to all 
creation. Letitia is no other than the break of day, 
which in a manner brings the sun into the world, and 
" with rosy fingers opes the gates of Day." It is sig- 
nificant that the Greek name for the mother of Apollo 
was Leto. From this the Romans made the name 
I^atona, which they gave to his motticr. But Lceto is 
the unused form of the verb Icetor^ and signified to 
inspire joy ; it is from this unused form that the sub- 
stantive Letitia is dei*i^cd. The identity, then, of 



William Tell. 127 

the motliei of Napoleon with the Greek Leto and the 
Latin Latona, is established conclusively. 

4. According to the popular story, this son of 
Letitia had three sisters ; and was it not the same 
with the Greek deity, who had the three Graces? 

5. The modern Gallic Apollo had four brothers. 
It is impossible not to discern here the anthropomor- 
phosis of the four seasons. But, it will be objected, 
the seasons should be females. Here the French 
language interposes ; for in French the seasons are 
masculine, with the exception of autumn, upon the 
gender of which grammarians are undecided, whilst 
Autumnus in Latin is not more feminine than the 
other seasons. This difficulty is therefore trifling, 
and what follows removes all shadow of doubt. 

Of the four brothers of Napoleon, three are said 
to have been kings, and these of course are. Spring 
reigning over the flowers, Summer reigning over the 
harvest. Autumn holding sway over the fruits. And 
as these three seasons owe all to the powerful in- 
fluence of the Sun, we are told in the popular myth 
that the three brothers of Napoleon drew their 
authority from him, and received from him their 
kingdoms. But if it be added that, of the four 



128 William Tell. 

brothers of Napoleon, one was not a king, that was 
because he is the impersonification of Winter, which 
has no reign over anything. If, however, it. be as- 
serted, in contradiction, that the winter has an em- 
pire, he will be given the principality over snows 
and frosts, which, in the dreary season of the year, 
whiten the face of the earth. Well, the fourth 
brother of Napoleon is thus invested by popular 
tradition, commonly called history, with a vain prin- 
cipality accorded to him in the decline of the power 
of Napoleon. The principality was that of Canino, 
a name derived from cani^ or the whitened hairs of 
a frozen old age, — true emblem of winter. To the 
eyes of poets, the forests covering the hills are their 
hair, and when winter frosts them, they represent 
the snowy locks of a decrepit nature in the old age 
of the year : — 

" Cum gelidus crescit canis in montibus humor." 

Consequently the Prince of Canino is an impersoni- 
fication of winter ; — winter whose reign begins 
when the kingdoms of the three fine seasons are 
passed from them, and when the sun is driven from 
his power by the children of the North, as the poets 
call the boreal winds. This is the origin of the fabu- 



William TelL 129 

lous invasion of France by the allied armies of the 
North. The story relates that these invaders — the 
northern gales — banished the many-colored flag, and 
replaced it by a white standard. This too is a grace- 
ful, but, at the same time, purely fabulous account 
of the Northern v^inds driving all the brilliant colors 
from the face of the soil, to replace them by the 
snowy sheet. 

6. Napoleon is said to have had two wives. It is 
well known that the classic fable gave two also to 
Apollo. These two were the moon and the earth. 
Plutarch asserts that the Greeks gave the moon to 
Apollo for wife, whilst the Egyptians attributed to 
him the earth. By the moon he had no posterity, 
but by the other he had one son only, the little 
Horus. This is an Egyptian allegory, representing 
the fruits of agriculture produced by the earth fer- 
tilized by the Sun. The pretended son of the fabu- 
lous Napoleon is said to have been born on the 20th 
of March, the season of the spring equinox, when 
agriculture is assuming its greatest period of activity. 

7. Napoleon is said to have released France from 
the devastating scourge which terrorized over the 
country, the hydra of the revolution, as it was pop- 



130 William Tell. 

ularly called. Who cannot see in this a Gallic ver- 
sion of the Greek legend of Apollo releasing Hellas 
from the terrible Python? The very name revolu- 
tion^ derived from the Latin verb revolvo^ is indica- 
tive of the coils of a serpent like the Python. 

8. The famous hero of the 19th century had, it is 
asserted, twelve Marshals at the head of his armies, 
and four who were stationary and inactive. The 
twelve first, as may be seen at once, are the signs 
of the zodiac, marching under the orders of the sun 
Napoleon, and each- commanding a division of the 
innumerable host of stars, which are parted into 
twelve portions, corresponding to the twelve signs. 
As for the four stationary officers, immovable in the 
midst of general motion, they are the cardinal points. 

9. It is currently reported that the chief of these 
brilliant armies, after having gloriously traversed the 
Southern kingdoms, penetrated North, and was there 
unable to maintain his sway. This too represents 
the course of the Sun, which assumes its greatest 
power in the South, but after the spring equinox 
seeks to reach the North ; and after a three months'^ 
march towards the boreal regions, is driven back 
upon his traces following the sign of Cancer, a sign 



William Tell. 131 

given to represent the retrogression of the sun in that 
portion of the sphere. It is on this that the story of 
the march of Napoleon towards Moscow, and his 
humbling retreat, is founded. 

10. Finally, the sun rises in the East and sets in 
the Western sea. The poets picture him rising out 
of the waters in the East, and setting in the ocean 
after his twelve hours' reign in the sky. Such is 
the history of Napoleon, coming from his Mediter- 
ranean isle, holding the reins of government for 
twelve years, and finally disappearing in the myste- 
rious regions of the great Atlantic. 

To those who see in Samson, the image of the 
sun, the correlative of the classic Hercules, this 
clever skit of the accomplished French Abb6 may 
prove of value as a caution* 



133 



T TAVING demolished William Tell, I proceed 
-*•-*• to the destruction of another article of popular 
belief. 

Who that has visited Snowdon has not seen the 
grave of Llewellyn's faithful hound Gellert, and been 
told by the guide the touching story of the death of 
the noble animal? How can we doubt the facts, 
seeing that the place, Beth-Gellert, is named after 
the dog, and that the grave is still visible? But 
unfortunately for the truth of the legend, its pedigree 
can be traced w^ith the utmost precision. 

The story is as follows : — 

The Welsh Prince Llewellyn had a noble deer- 
hound, Gellert, whom he trusted to watch the cradle 
of his baby son whilst he himself was absent. 

One day, on his return, to his intense horror, he 
beheld the cradle empty and upset, the clothes dab- 
bled with blood, and Gellert's mouth dripping with 



The Dog Gellert. 133 

gore. Concluding hastily that the hound had proved 
unfaithful, had fallen on the child and devoured it, 
— in a paroxysm of rage the prince drew his sword 
and slew the dog. Next instant the cry of the babe 
from behind the cradle showed him that the child 
was uninjured ; and, on looking farther, Llewellyn 
discovered the body of a huge wolf, which had en- 
tered the house to seize and devour the child, but 
which had been kept off and killed by the brave 
dog Gellert. 

In his self-reproach and grief, the prince erected 
a stately monument to Gellert, and called the place 
where he was buried after the poor hound's name. 

Now, I find in Russia precisely the same story 
told, with just the same appearance of truth, of a 
Czar Piras. In Germany it appears with consider- 
able variations. A man determines on slaying his 
old dog Sultan, and consults with, his wife how this 
is to be effected. Sultan overhears the conversation, 
and complains bitterly to the wolf, who suggests an 
ingenious plan by which the master may be induced 
to spare his dog. Next day, when the man is going 
to his work, the wolf undertakes to carry off the child 
from its cradle. Sultan is to attack him and rescue 



134 ^^^ ^^S Gellert. 

the infant. The plan succeeds admirably, and the 
dog spends his remaining years in comfort. (Grimm, 
K. M. 48.) 

But there is a story in closer conformity to that 
of Gellert among the French collections of fabliaux 
made by Le Grand d'Aussy and Edelestand du Meril. 
It became popular through the " Gesta Romanorum," 
a collection of tales made by the monks for harmless 
reading, in the fourteenth century. 

In the " Gesta" the tale is told as follows : — 
" Folliculus, a knight, was fond of hunting and 
tournaments. He had an only son, for whom three 
nurses were provided. Next to this child, he loved 
his falcon and his greyhound. It happened one 
day that he was called to a tournament, whither 
his wife and domestics went also, leaving the child 
in the cradle, the greyhound lying by him, and the 
falcon on his perch. A serpent that inhabited a 
hole near the castle, taking advantage of the pro- 
found silence that reigned, crept from his habita- 
tion, and advanced towards the cradle to devour 
the child. The falcon, perceiving the danger, flut- 
tered with his wings till he awoke the dog, who 
instantly attacked the invader, and after a fierce 



The Dog Gellert. 135 

conflict, ill which he was sorely wounded, killed 
him. He then lay down on the ground to lick 
and heal his wounds. When the nurses returned, 
they found the cradle overturned, the child thrown 
out, and the ground covered with blood, as was also 
the dog, who they immediately concluded had killed 
the child. 

" Terrified at the idea of meeting the anger of 
the parents, they determined to escape ; but in their 
flight fell in with their mistress, to whom they were 
compelled to relate the supposed murder of the 
child by the greyhound. The knight soon arrived 
to hear the sad story, and, maddened with fury, 
rushed forward to the spot. The poor wounded 
and faithful animal made an effort to rise and wel- 
come his master with his accustomed fondness ; but 
the enraged knight received him on the point of 
his sword, and he fell lifeless to the ground. On 
examination of the cradle, the infant was found 
alive and unhurt, with the dead serpent lying by 
him. The knight now perceived what had hap- 
pened, lamented bitterly over his faithful dog, and 
blamed himself for having too hastily depended on 
the words of his wife. Abandoning the profession 



136 The Dog Gellert, 

, of arms, he broke his lance in pieces, and vowed 
a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, where he spent 
the rest of his days in peace." 

The monkish hit at the wife is amusing, and 
might have been supposed to have originated with 
those determined misogynists, as the gallant Welsh- 
men lay all the blame on the man. But the good 
compilers of the "Gesta" wrote little of their own, 
except moral applications of the tales they relate, 
and the story of Folliculus and his dog, like many 
others in their collection, is drawn from a foreign 
source. 

It occurs in the Seven Wise Masters, and in the 
" Calumnia Novercalis'' as well, so that it must 
have been popular throughout mediaeval Europe. 
Now, the tales of the Seven Wise Masters are trans- 
lations from a Hebrew work, the Kalilah and Dim- 
nah of Rabbi Joel, composed about A. D. 1250, or 
from Simeon Seth's Greek Kylile and Dimne, writ- 
ten in 1080. These Greek and Hebrew works were 
derived from kindred sources. That of Rabbi Joel 
was a translation from an Arabic version made by 
Nasr-Aliah in the twelfth century, whilst Simeon 
Seth's was a translation of the Persian Kalilah and 



The Dog Gellerf, 137 

Dimnah. But the Persian Kalilah and Dimnah 
was not either an original work; it was in turn a 
translation from the Sanskrit Pantschatantra, made 
about A. D. 540. 

In this ancient Indian book the story runs as 
follows : — 

A Brahmin named Devasaman had a wife, who 
gave birth to a son, and also to an ichneumon. 
She loved both her children dearly, giving them 
alike the breast, and anointing them alike with 
salves. But she feared the ichneumon might not 
love his brother. 

One day, having laid her boy in bed, she took 
up the water jar, and said fo her husband, " Hear 
me, master ! I am going to the tank to fetch 
water. Whilst I am absent, watch the boy, lest 
he gets injured by the ichneumon." After she had 
left the house, the Brahmin went forth begging, 
leaving the house empty. In crept a black snake, 
and attempted to bite the child ; but the ichneumon 
rushed at it, and tore it in pieces. Then, proud of 
its achievement, it sallied .forth, all bloody, to meet 
its mother. She, seeing- the creature stained with 
blood, concluded, with feminine precipitance, that it 



138 The Dog Gellert. 

had fallen on the baby and killed it, and she flung 
her water jar at it and slew it. Only on her 
return home did she ascertain her mistake. 

The same story is also told in the Hitopadesa 
(iv. 13), but the animal is an otter, not an ich- 
neumon. In the Arabic version a weasel takes the 
place of the ichneumon. 

The Buddhist missionaries carried the story into 
Mongolia, and in the Mongolian Uligerun, which 
is a translation of the Tibetian Dsanghen, the 
story reappears with the pole-cat as the brave and 
suffering defender of the child. 

Stanislaus Julien, the great Chinese scholar, has 
discovered the same tale in the Chinese work 
entitled " The Forest of Pearls from the Garden 
of the Law." This work dates from 668 ; and in 
it the creature is an ichneumon. 

In the Persian Sindibad-nameh is the same tale, 
but the faithful animal is a cat. In Sandabar and 
Syntipas it has become a dog. Through the in- 
fluence of Sandabar on the Hebrew translation of 
the Kalilah and^" Dimnah, the ichneumon is also 
replaced by a dog. 

Such is the history of the Gellert legend; it is 



The Dog Gellert. 139 

an introduction into Europe from India, every step 
of its transmission being clearly demonstrable. 
From the Gesta Romanorum it passed into a 
popular tale throughout Europe, and in different 
countries it was, like the Tell myth, localized and 
individualized. Many a Welsh story, such as those 
contained in the Mabinogion, are as easily traced 
to an Eastern origin. 

But every story has its root. The root of the 
Gellert tale is this : A man forms an alliance of 
friendship with a beast or bird. The dumb animal 
renders him a signal service. He misunderstands 
the act, and kills his preserver. 

We have tracked this myth under the Gellert 
form from India to Wales ; but under another form 
it is the property of the whole Aryan family, and 
forms a portion of the traditional lore of all nations 
sprung from that stock. 

Thence arose the classic fable of the peasant, 
who, as he slept, was bitten by a fly. He awoke, 
and in a rage killed the insect. When too late, he 
observed that the little creature had aroused him 
that he might avoid a snake which lay coiled up 
uear his pillow. 



140 The Dog Gellert. 

In the Anvar-i-Suhaili is the following kindred 
tale. A king had a falcon. One day, whilst hunt- 
ing, he filled a goblet with water dropping from a 
rock. As he put the vessel to his lips, his falcon 
dashed upon it, and upset it with its wings. The 
king, in a fury, slew the bird, and then discovered 
that the water dripped from the jaws of a serpent 
of the most poisonous description. 

This story, with some variations, occurs in yEsop, 
^lian, and Apthonius. In the Greek fable, a 
peasant liberates an eagle from the clutches of a 
dragon. The dragon spirts poison into the water 
which the peasant is about to drink, without ob- 
serving what the monster had done. The grateful 
eagle upsets the goblet with his wings. 

The story appears in Egypt un^ler a whimsical 
form. A Wali once smashed a pot full of herbs 
which a cook had prepared. The exasperated cook 
thrashed the well-intentioned but unfortunate Wali 
within an inch of his life, and when he returned, 
exhausted with his efforts at belaboring the man, 
to examine the broken pot, he discovered amongst 
the herbs a poisonous snake. 

How many brothers, sisters, uncles, aunts, and 



The Dog Gellert. 141 

cousins of all degrees a little story has ! And how 
few of the tales we listen to can lay any claim to 
originality ! There is scarcely a story which I hear 
which I cannot connect with some family of myths, 
and whose pedigree I cannot ascertain with more 
or less precision. Shakespeare drew the plots of 
his plays from Boccaccio or Straparola ; but these 
Italians did not invent the tales they lent to the 
English dramatist. King Lear does not originate 
with Geofry of Monmouth, but comes from early 
Indian stores of fable, whence also are derived the 
Merchant of Venice and the pound of flesh, ay, 
and the very incident of the three caskets. 

But who would credit it, were it not proved by 
conclusive facts, that Johnny Sands is the inherit- 
ance of the whole Aryan family of nations, and 
that Peeping Tom of Coventry peeped in India 
and on the Tartar steppes ages before Lady Godiva 
was born? 

If you listen to Traviata at the opera, you have 
set before you a tale which has lasted for centuries, 
and which was perhaps born in India. 

If you read in classic fable of Orpheus charming 
woods and meadows, beasts and birds, with his 



142 The Dog Gellert. 

magic lyre, you remember to have seen the same 
fable related in the Kalewala of the Finnish Wai- 
nomainen, and in the Kaleopoeg of the Esthonian 
Kalewa. 

If you take up English history, and read of 
William the Conqueror slipping as he landed on 
British soil, and kissing the earth, saying he had 
come to greet and claim his own, you remember 
that the same story is told of Napoleon in Egypt, 
of King Olaf Harold's son in Norway, and in 
classic history of Junius Brutus on his return from 
the oracle. 

A little while ago I cut out of a Sussex news- 
paper a story purporting to be the relation of a 
fact which had taken place at a fixed date in 
Lewes. This was the story. A tyrannical hus- 
band locked the door against his wife, who was out 
having tea with a neighbor, gossiping and scandal- 
mongering ; when she applied for admittance, he 
pretended not to know her. She threatened to 
jump into the w^ell unless he opened the door. 

The man, not supposing that she would carry 
her threat into execution, declined, alleging that he 
was in bed, and the night was chilly ; besides 



The Dog Gellert, 143 

which he entirely disclaimed all acquaintance with 
the lady who claimed admittance. 

The wife then flung a log into a well, and se- 
creted herself behind the door. The man, hearing 
the splash, fancied that his good lady was really in 
the deeps, and forth he darted in his nocturnal 
costume, which was of the lightest, to ascertain 
whether his deliverance was complete. At once 
the lady darted into the house, locked the door, 
and, on the husband pleading for admittance, she 
declared most solemnly from the window that she 
did not know him. 

Now, this story, I can positively assert, unless 
the events of this world move in a circle, did not 
happen in Lewes, or any other Sussex town. 

It was told in the Gesta Romanorum six hundred 
years ago, and it was told, may be, as many hun- 
dred years before in India, for it is still to be found 
in Sanskrit collections of tales. 



144 



^aWtb iHen. 

T WELL remember having it impressed upon me 
-*■ by a Devonshire nurse, as a little child, that all 
Cornishmen were born with tails ; and it was long 
before I could overcome the prejudice thus early 
implanted in my breast against my Cornubian neigh- 
bors. I looked upon those who dwelt across the 
Tamar as " uncanny," as being scarcely to be classed 
with Christian people, and certainly not to be freely 
associated with by tailless Devonians. I think my 
eyes were first opened to the fact that I had been 

deceived by a worthy bookseller of L , with 

whom I had contracted a warm friendship, he hav- 
ing at sundry times contributed pictures to my scrap- 
book. I remember one day resolving to broach the 
delicate subject with my tailed friend, whom I liked, 
notwithstanding his caudal appendage. 

" Mr. X , is it true that you are a Cornisb 

man ? " 



Tailed Men. 145 

" Yes, my little man ; born and bred in the West 
country." 

''I like you very much; but — have you really 
got a tail?" 

When the bookseller had recovered from the aston- 
ishment which I had produced by my question, he 
stoutly repudiated the charge. 

''But you are a Cornishman?" 

" To be sure I am." 

" And all Cornishmen have tails." 

I believe I satisfied my own mind that the good 
man had sat his off, and my nurse assured me that 
such was the case with those of sedentary habits. 

It is curious that Devonshire superstition should 
attribute the tail to Cornishmen, for it was asserted 
of certain men of Kent in olden times, and was re- 
ferred to Divine vengeance upon them for having 
insulted St. Thomas a Becket, if we may believe 
Polydore Vergil. "There were some," he says, "to 
whom it seemed that the king's secret wish was, that 
Thomas should vbe got rid of. He, indeed, as one 
accounted to be an enemy of the king's person, was 
already regarded with so little respect, nay, was 
treated with so much contempt, that when he came 
10 



146 Tailed Men, 

to Strood, which village is situated on the Medway, 
the river that washes Rochester, the inhabitants of the 
place, being eager to show some mark of contumely 
to the prelate in his disgrace, did not scruple to cut 
off the tail of the horse on which he was riding ; 
but by this profane and inhospitable act they covered 
themselves with eternal reproach ; for it so happened 
after this, by the will of God, that all the offspring 
born from the men who had done this thing, were 
born with tails, like brute animals. But this mark 
of infamy, which formerly was everywhere notorious, 
has disappeared with the extinction of the race whose 
fathers perpetrated this deed." 

John Bale, the zealous reformer, and Bishop of 
Ossory in Edward VI.'s time, refers to this story, 
and also mentions a variation of the scene and cause 
of this ignoble punishment. He writes, quoting his 
authorities, ''John Capgrave and Alexander of Es- 
seby sayth, that for castynge of fyshe tayles at thys 
Augustyne, Dorsettshyre men had tayles ever after. 
But Polydorus applieth it unto Kentish men at Stroud, 
by Rochester, for cuttinge off Thomas Becket's horse's 
tail. Thus hath England in all other land a per- 
petual infamy of tayles by theye wrytten legendes of 



Tailed Men. i^*j 

lyes, yet can they not well tell where to bestowe 
them truely." Bale, a fierce and unsparing reformer, 
and one who stinted not hard words, applying to 
the inventors of these legends an epithet more strong 
than elegant, says, " In the legends of their sanctified 
sorcerers they have diffamed the English posterity 
with tails, as has been showed afore. That an Eng- 
lyshman now cannot travayle in another land by way 
of marchandyse or any other honest occupyinge, but 
it is most contumeliously thrown in his tethe that all 
Englyshmen have tails. That uncomely note and 
report have the nation gotten, without recover, by 
these laisy and idle lubbers, the monkes and the 
priestes, which could find no matters to advance 
their canonized gains by, or their saintes, as they 
call them, but manifest lies and knaveries." * 

Andrew Marvel also makes mention of this strange 
judgment in his Loyal Scot: — 

** But who considers right will find, indeed, 
'Tis Holy Island parts us, not the Tweed. 
Nothing but clergy could us two seclude. 
No Scotch was ever like a bishop's feud. 



** Actes of English Votaries." 



148 Tailed Men. 

All Litanjs in this have wanted faith, 

There's no — Deliver us from a Bishop'* s wrath* 

Never shall Calvin pardoned be for sales, 

Never, for Burnet's sake,, the Lauderdales; 

For Becket's sake, Kent always shall have tails." 

It may be remembered that Lord Monboddo, a 
Scotch judge of last century, and a philosopher of 
some repute, though of great eccentricity, stoutly 
maintained the theory that man ought to have a 
tail, that the tail is a desideratum^ and that the 
abrupt termination of the spine without caudal elon- 
gation is a sad blemish in the origination of man. 
The tail, the point in which man is inferior to the 
brute, what a delicate index of the mind it is ! how 
it expresses the passions of love and hate ! how nicely 
it gives token of the feelings of joy or fear which 
animate the soul ! But Lord Monboddo did not 
consider that what the tail is to the brute, that the 
eye is to man ; the lack of one member is supplied 
by the other. I can tell a proud man by his eye 
just as truly as if he stalked past one with erect tail ; 
and anger is as plainly depicted in the human eye 
as in the bottle-brush tail of a cat. I know a sneak 
by his cowering glance, though he has not a tail 
between his legs ; and pleasure is evident in the 



Tailed Men. 149 

laughing eye, without there being any necessity for 
a wagging brush to express it. 

Dr. Johnson paid a visit to the judge, and knocked 
on the head his theory that men ought to have tails, 
and actually were born with them occasionally ; for 
said he, " Of a standing fact, sir, there ought to be 
no controversy ; if there are men with tails, catch a 
homo caudatMS^^ And, ''It is a pity to see Lord 
Monboddo publish such notions as he has done — a 
man of sense, and of so much elegant learning. 
There would be little in a fool doing it ; we should 
only laugh ; but, when a wise man does it, we are 
sorry. Other people have strange notions, but they 
conceal them. If they have tails they hide them ; 
but Monboddo is as jealous of his tail as a squirrel." 
And yet Johnson seems to have been tickled with the 
idea, and to have been amused with the notion of 
an appendage like a tail being regarded as the com- 
plement of human perfection. It may be remem- 
bered how Johnson made the acquaintance of the 
young Laird of Col, during his Highland tour, and 
how pleased he was with him. " Col," says he, " is 
a noble animal. He is as complete an islander as 
the mind can figure. He is a farmer, a sailor, a 



150 Tailed Men. 

hunter, a fisher: he will run you down a dog; if 
any man has a tail^ it is Col." And notwith- 
standing all his aversion to puns, the great Doctor 
was fain to yield to hnman weakness on one occa- 
sion, under the influence of the mirth which Mon- 
boddo's name seems to have excited. Johnson 
writes to Mrs. Thrale of a party he had met one 
night, which he thus enumerates : " There were 
Smelt, and the Bishop of St. Asaph, who comes 
to every place; and Sir Joshua, and Lord Mon- 
boddo, and ladies out of taleP 

There is a Polish story of a witch who made a 
girdle of human skin and laid it across the thres- 
hold of a door where a marriage-feast was being 
held. On the bridal pair stepping across the 
girdle they were transformed into wolves. Three 
years after the v/itch sought them out, and cast 
over them dresses of fur with the hair turned out- 
ward, whereupon they recovered their human 
forms, but, unfortunately, the dress cast over the 
bridegroom was too scanty, and did not extend 
oV^er his tail, so that, when he was restored to his 
foril!^er condition, he retained his lupine caudal 
appendage, and this became hereditary in his 



Tailed Men, 151 

family ; so that all Poles with tails are lineal 
descendants of the ancestor to whom this little 
misfortune happened. John Struys, a Dutch trav- 
eller, who visited the Isle of Formosa in 1677, 
gives a curious story, which is worth transcribing. 

" Before I visited this island," he writes, " I had 
often heard tell that there were men who had long 
tails, like brute beasts ; but I had never been able 
to believe it, and I regarded it as a thing so alien 
to our nature, that I should now have difficulty in 
accepting it, if my own senses had not removed 
from me every pretence for doubting the fact, by 
the following strange adventure : The inhabitants 
of Formosa, being used to see us, were in the 
habit of receiving us on terms which left nothing 
to apprehend on either side ; so that, although 
mere foreigners, we always believed ourselves in 
safety, and had grown familiar enough to ramble 
at large without an escort, when grave experience 
taught us that, in so doing, we were hazarding 
too much. As some of our party were one day 
taking a stroll, one of them had occasion to with- 
draw about a stone's throw from the rest, who, 
being at the moment engaged in an eager conver- 



153 Tailed Men. 

sation, proceeded without heeding the disappear- 
ance of their companion. After a while, however, 
his absence was observed, and the party paused, 
thinking he would rejoin them. They waited 
some time ; but at last, tired of the delay, they 
returned in the direction of the spot where they 
remembered to have seen him last. Arriving there, 
they were horrified to find his mangled body lying 
on the ground, though the nature of the lacerations 
showed that he had not had to suffer long ere 
death released him. Whilst some remained to 
watch the dead body, others went off in search of 
the murderer ; and these had not gone far, when 
they came upon a man of peculiar appearance, 
who, finding himself enclosed by the exploring 
party, so as to make escape from them impossi- 
ble, began to foam with rage, and by cries and 
wild gesticulations to intimate that he would ^ make 
any oiie repent the attempt who should venture to 
meddle with him. The fierceness of his despera- 
tion for a time kept our people at bay ; but as his 
fury gradually subsided, they gathered more closely 
round him, and at length seized him. He then 
soon made them understand that it was he who 



Tailed Men, 153 

had killed their comrade, but they could not learn 
from him any cause for this conduct. As the 
crime was so atrocious, and, if allowed to pass 
with impunity, might entail even more serious 
consequences, it was determined to burn the man. 
He was tied up to a stake, where he was kept 
for some hours before the time of execution ar- 
rived. It was then that I beheld what I had never 
thought to see. He had a tail more than a foot 
long, covered with red hair, and very like that of a 
cow. When he saw the surprise that this discov- 
ery created among the European spectators, he 
informed us that his tail was the effect of climate, 
for that all the inhabitants of the southern side of 
the island, where they then were, were provided 
with like appendages." * 

After Struys, Hornemann reported that, between 
the Gulf of Benin and Abyssinia, were tailed an- 
thropophagi, named by the natives Niam-niams ; 
and .in 1849, ^' Descouret, on his return from 
Mecca, affirmed that such was a common report, 
and added that they had long arms, low and nar- 
row foreheads, long and erect ears, and slim legs. 

* "Voyages de Jean Struys," An. 1650. 



154 Tailed Men. 

Mr. Harrison, in his " Highlands of Ethiopia,'' 
allu les to the common belief among the x\bys- 
sinians, in a pygmy race of this nature. 

MM. Arnault and Vayssiere, travellers in the 
same country, in 1850, brought the subject before 
the Academy of Sciences. 

In 1 85 1, M. de Castelnau gave additional de 
tails relative to an expedition against these tailed 
men. " The Niam-niams," he says, '' were sleep- 
ing in the sun : the Haoussas approached, and, 
falling on them, massacred them to the last man. 
They had all of them tails forty centimetres long, 
and from two to three in diameter. This organ is 
smooth. Among the corpses were those of sev- 
eral women, who were deformed in the same 
manner. In all other particulars, the men were 
precisely like all other negroes. They are of a 
deep black, their teeth are polished, their bodies 
not tattooed. They are armed with clubs and jave- 
lins ; in war they utter piercing cries. They cul- 
tivate rice, maize, and other grain. They are fine 
looking men, and their hair is not frizzled." 

M. d'Abbadie, another Abyssinian traveller, writ- 
ing in 1852, gives the following account from the 



Tailed Men, 155 

lips of an Abyssinian priest : " At the distance of 
fifteen days' journey south of Herrar is a place 
where all the men have tails, the length of a palm, 
covered with hair, and situated at the extremity of 
the spine. The females of that country are very 
beautiful and are tailless. I have seen some fifteen 
of these people at Besberah, and I am positive 
that the tail is natural." 

It will be observed that there is a discrepancy 
between the accounts of M. de Castelnau and 
M. d'Abbadie. The former accords tails to the 
ladies, whilst the latter denies it. According to 
the former, the tail is smooth ; according to the 
latter, it is covered with hair. 

Dr. Wolf has improved on this in his " Travels 
and Adventures," vol. ii. 1861. "There are men 
and women in Abyssinia with tails like dogs and 
horses." Wolf heard also from a great many 
Abyssinians and Armenians (and Wolf is con- 
vinced of the truth of it), that " there are near 
Narea, in Abyssinia, people — men and women — 
with large tails, with which they are able to knock 
down a horse ; and there are also such people 
near China." And in a note, " In the College of 



156 Tailed Alen, 

Surgeons at Dublin may still be seen a human 
skeleton, with a tail seven inches long ! There are 
many known instances of this elongation of the 
caudal vei tebra, as in the Poonangs in Borneo." 

But the most interesting and circumstantial ac- 
count of the Niam-niams is that given by Dr. 
Hubsch, physician to the hospitals of Constantino- 
ple. "It was in 1852," says he, "that I saw for 
the first time a tailed negress. I was struck with 
this phenomenon, and I questioned her master, a 
slave dealer. I learned from him that there exists 
a tribe called Niam-niam, occupying the interior of 
Africa. All the members of this tribe bear the 
caudal appendage, and, as Oriental imagination is 
given to exaggeration, I was assured that the tails 
sometimes attained the length of two feet. That 
which I observed was smooth and hairless. It was 
about two inches long, and terminated in a point. 
This woman was as black as ebony, her hair was 
frizzled, her teeth white, large, and planted in sock- 
ets which inclined considerably outward ; her four 
canine teeth were filed, her eyes bloodshot. She 
ate meat raw, her clothes fidgeted her, her intellect 
was on a par with tliat of others of her condition. 



Tailed Men. 157 

" Her master had been unable, during six months, 
to sell her, notwithstanding the low figure at which 
he would have disposed of her ; the abhorrence 
with which she was regarded was not attributed 
to her tail, but to the partiality, which she was 
unable to conceal, for human flesh. Her tribe fed 
on the flesh of the prisoners taken from the neigh- 
boring tribes, with whom they were constantly at 
war. 

" As soon as one of the tribe dies, his relations, 
instead . of burying him, cut him up and regale 
themselves upon his remains ; consequently there 
are no cemeteries in this land. They do not all of 
them lead a wandering life, but many of them con- 
struct hovels of the branches of trees. They make 
for themselves weapons of war and of agriculture ; 
they cultivate maize and wheat, and keep cattle. 
The Niam-niams have a language of their own, of 
an entirely primitive character, though containing an 
infusion of Arabic words. 

" They live in a state of complete nudity, and 
seek only to satisfy their brute appetites. There is 
among them an utter disregard for morality, incest 
and adultery being common. The strongest among 



158 Tailed Men. 

them becomes the chief of the tribe; and it is he 
who apportions the shares of the booty obtained in 
war. It is hard to say whether they have any re- 
ligion ; but in all probability they have none, as 
they readily adopt any one which they are taught. 

'^ It is difficult to tame them altogether ; their in- 
stinct impelling them constantly to seek for human 
flesh ; and instances are related of slaves who have 
massacred and eaten the children confided to their 
charge. 

" I have seen a man of the same race, who had 
a tail an inch and a half long, covered with a few 
hairs. He appeared to be thirty-five years old ; he 
was robust, well built, of an ebon blackness, and 
had the same peculiar formation of jaw noticed 
above ; that is to say, the tooth sockets were in- 
clined outwards. Their four canine teeth are filed 
down, to diminish their power of mastication. 

" I know also, at Constantinople, the son of a 
physician, aged two years, who was born with a 
tail an inch long ; he belonged to the white Cau- 
casian race. One of his grandfathers possessed the 
same appendage. This phenomenon is regarded gen- 
erally in the East as a sign of great brute force." 



Tailed Men. 159 

About ten years ago, a newspaper paragraph re- 
corded tjie birth of a boy at Newcastle-on-Tyne, 
provided with a tail about an inch and a quarter 
long. It was asserted that the child when sucking 
wagged this stump as token of pleasure. 

Yet, notwithstanding all this testimony in favor 
of tailed men and women, it is simply a matter of 
impossibility for a human being to have a tail, for 
the spinal vertebrae in man do not admit of elonga- 
tion, as in many animals ; for the spine terminates 
in the os sacrum, a large and expanded bone of 
peculiar character, entirely precluding all possibility 
of production to the spine as in caudate animals. 



/ 



i6o 



;3lnticl)n0t anb |]op€ loan. 

FROM the earliest ages of the Church, the ad- 
vent of the Man of Sin has been looked for- 
ward to with terror, and the passages of Scripture 
relating to him have been studied with solemn awe, 
lest that day of wrath should come upon the Church 
unawares. As events in the world's history took 
place which seemed to be indications of the ap- 
proach of Antichrist, a great horror fell upon men's 
minds, and their imagmations conjured up myths 
which flew from mouth to mouth, and which were 
\implicitly believed. 

\ Before speaking of these strange tales which pro- 
^^ed such an effect on the minds of men in the 
^^\dle ages, it will be well briefly to examine the 



^pii^ns of divines of the early ages on the pas- 
sages \ of Scripture connected with the coming of 
the lasi^ great persecutor of the Church. Antichrist 
was believed by most ancient writers to be destined 



\ 



Antichj'ist and Pope Joan, i6i 

to arise out of the tribe of Dan, a belief founded 
on the prediction of Jacob, ''Dan shall be a serpent 
by the way, an adder in the path " (conf. Jeremiah 
viii. i6), and on the exclamation of the dying pa- 
triarch, when looking on his son Dan, " I have 
waited for Thy Salvation, O Lord," as though the 
long-suffering of God had borne long with that 
tribe, but in vain, and it was to be extinguished 
without hope. This, indeed, is implied in the seal- 
ing of the servants of God in their foreheads (Rev- 
elation vii.), when twelve thousand out of every 
tribe, except Dan, were seen by St. John to receive 
the seal of adoption, whilst of the tribe of Dan not 
one was sealed, as though it, to a man, had apos- 
tatized. 

Opinions as to the nature of Antichrist were di- 
vided. Some held that he was to be a devil in 
phantom body, and of this number was Hippolytus. 
Others, again, believed that he would be an incarnate 
demon, true man and true devil ; in fearful and 
diabolical parody of the Incarnation of our Lord. 
A third view was, that he would be merely a des- 
perately wicked man, acting upon diabolical inspira- 
tions, just as the saints act upon divine inspirations. 
ir 



1 62 Antichrist and Pope Joan, 

St. John Damascene expressly asserts that he will 
not be an incarnate demon, but a devilish man ; 
for he says, " Not as Christ assumed humanity, so 
will the devil become human, but the Man will 
receive all the inspiration of Satan, and will suffer 
the devil to take up his abode within him." In 
this manner Antichrist could have many forerunners ; 
and so St. Jerome and St. Augustine saw an Anti- 
christ in Nero, not the Antichrist, but one of those 
of whom the Apostle speaks — "Even now are there 
many Antichrists." Thus also every enemy of the 
faith, such as Diocletian, Julian, and Mahomet, has 
been regarded as a precursor of the Arch-persecutor, 
who was expected to sum up in himself the cruelty 
of a Nero or Diocletian, the show of virtue of a 
Julian, and the spiritual pride of a Mahomet. 

From infancy the evil one is to take possession 
of Antichrist, and to train him for his office, instil- 
ling into him cunning, cruelty, and pride. His 
doctrine will be — not downright infidelity, but a 
" show of godliness," whilst '' denying the power 
thereof;" i. e., the miraculous origin and divine au- 
thority of Christianity. He will sow doubts of our 
Lord's manifestation " in the flesh," he will allow 



Antichrist and Pope Joan. 163 

Christ to be an excellent Man, capable of teaching 
the most exalted truths, and inculcating the purest 
morality, yet Himself fallible and carried away by 
fanaticism. 

In the end, however, Antichrist will " exalt him- 
self to sit as God in the temple of God," and be- 
come " the abomination of desolation standing in 
the holy place." At the same time there is to be 
an awful alliance struck between himself, the im- 
personification of the world-power and the Church 
of God ; some high pontiff of which, or the epis- 
copacy in general, will enter into league with the 
unbelieving state to oppress the very elect. It is 
a strange instance of religionary virulence which 
makes some detect the Pope of Rome in the Man 
of Sin, the Harlot, the Beast, and the Priest going 
before it. The Man of Sin and the Beast are un- 
mistakably identical, and refer to an Antichristian 
world-power ; whilst the Harlot and the Priest are 
symbols of an apostasy in the Church. There is 
nothing Roman in this, but something very much 
the opposite. 

How the Abomination of Desolation can be con- 
sidered as set up in a Church where every sane- 




164 Antichrist and Pope jfoan. 

tuary is adorned with all that can draw the heart 
to the Crucified, and raise the thoughts to the 
imposing ritual of Heaven, is a puzzle to me. To 
the man uninitiated in the law that Revelation is 
to be interpreted by contraries, it would seem more 
like the Abomination of Desolation in the Holy 
Place if he entered a Scotch Presbyterian, or a 
Dutch Calvinist, place of worship/ Rome does 
not fight against the Daily vSacrifice, and endeavor 
to abolish it ; that has been rather the labor of so- 
called Church Reformers, who with the suppression 
of the doctrine of Eucharistic Sacrifice and Sacra- 
mental Adoration have well nigh obliterated all 
notion of worship to be addressed to the God-Man. 
Rome does not deny the power of the godliness 
of which she makes show, but insists on that power 
with no broken accents. It is rather in other com- 
munities, where authority is flung aside, and any 
man is permitted to believe or reject w^hat he likes, 
that we must look for the leaven of the Anti-chris- 
tian spirit at work. 

It is evident that this spirit will infect the 
Church, and especially those in place of authority 
therein ; so that the elect will have to wrestle 



Antichrist and Pope yoan. 165 

against both "principalities and powers" in the 
state, and also '' spiritual wickedness in the high 
places " of the Church. Perhaps it will be this 
feeling of antagonism between the inferior orders 
and the highest which will throw the Bishops into 
the arms of the state, and establish that unholy 
alliance which will be cemented for the purpose 
of oppressing all who hold the truth in sincerity, 
who are definite in their dogmatic statements of 
Christ's having been manifested in the flesh, who 
labor to establish the Daily Sacrifice, and offer in 
every place the pure offering spoken of by Malachi. 
Perhaps it was in anticipation of this, that ancient 
mystical interpreters explained the scene at the 
well in Midian as having reference to the last 
times. 

The Church, like the daughters of Reuel, comes 
to the Well of living waters to water her parched 
flock ; whereupon the shepherds — her chief pastors 
— arise and strive with her. " Fear not, O flock, 
fear not, O daughter ! " exclaims the commentator ; 
" thy true Moses is seated on the well, and He 
will arise out of His resting-place, and will with 
His own hand smite the shepherds, and water the 



1 66 Antichrist and Pope yoan* 

flock." Let the sheep be in barren and dry pas- 
tures, — so long the shepherds strive not ; let the 
sheep pant and die, — so long the shepherds show 
^no signs of irritation ; but let the Church approach 
the limpid well of life, and at once her prelates 
will, in the latter days, combine ''to strive" with 
her, and keep back the flock from the reviving 
streams. 

In the time of Antichrist the Church will be 
divided : one portion will hold to the world-power, 
the other will seek out the old paths, and cling to 
the only true Guide. The high places will be 
filled w^th unbelievers in the Incarnation, and the 
Church will be in a condition of the utmost spiritual 
degradation, but enjoying the highest State patron- 
age. The religion in favor will be one of morality, 
but not of dogma ; and the Man of Sin will be 
able to promulgate his doctrine, according to St. 
Anselm, through his great eloquence and wisdom, 
his vast learning and mightiness in the Holy Scrip- 
tures, which he will wrest to the overthrowing of 
dogma. He will be liberal in bribes, for he will 
be of unbounded wealth ; he will be capable of 
performing great "signs and wonders," so as "to 



Antichrist and Pope Joan, lb*] - 

deceive — the very elect ; " and at the last, he w^ill 
tear the moral veil from his countenance, and a 
monster of impiety and cruelty, he will inaugurate 
that awful persecution, which is to last for three 
years and a half, and to excel in horror all the 
persecutions that have gone before. 

In that terrible season of confusion faith will be 
* all but extinguished. " When the Son of Man 
Cometh, shall He find faith on the earth ? " asks 
our Bles-sed Lord, as though expecting the answer. 
No ; and then, says Marchantius, the vessel of the 
Church will disappear in the foam of that boil- 
ing deep of infidelity, and be hidden in the black- 
ness of that storm of destruction which . sweeps 
over the earth. The sun shall " be darkened, and 
the moon shall not give her light, and the stars 
shall fall from heaven ; " the sun of faith shall have 
gone out; the moon, the Church, shall not give 
her light, being turned into blood, through stress 
of persecution; and the stars, the great ecclesiasti- 
cal dignitaries, shall fall into apostasy. But still the 
Church will remain unwrecked, she will weather 
the storm ; still will she come forth '' beautiful as 
the moon, teirible as an army with banners;" for 



1 68 Antichrist and Pope Joan, 

after the lapse of those three and a half years, 
Christ will descend to avenge the blood of the 
saints, by destroying Antichrist and the world- 
power. 

Such is a brief sketch of the scriptural doctrine 
of Antichrist as held by the early and mediaeval 
Church. Let us now see to what myths it gave 
rise among' the vulgar and the imaginative. Raba- 
nus Maurus, in his work on the life of Antichrist, 
gives a full account of the miracles he wuU perform ; 
he tells us that the Man-fiend will heal the sick, 
raise the dead, restore sight to the blind, hearing 
to the deaf, speech to the dumb ; he will raise 
storms and calm them, will remove mountains, 
make trees flourish or wither at a w^ord. He will 
rebuild the temple at Jerusalem, and making the 
Holy City the great capital of the world. Popular 
opinion added that his vast wealth would be ob- 
tained from hidden treasures, which are now being 
concealed by the demons for his use. Various 
possessed persons, when interrogated, announced 
that such was the case, and that the amount of 
buried gold w^as vast. 

" In the year 1599," '^^J^ Canon Moreau, a con- 



Antichrist and Pope Joan, 169 

temporary historian, '' a rumor circulated with pro- 
digious rapidity through Europe, that Antichrist 
had been born at Babylon, and that already the 
Jews of that part were hurrying to receive and 
recognize him as their Messiah. The news came 
from Italy and Germany, and extended to Spain, 
England, and other Western kingdoms, troubling 
many people, even the most discreet ; however, the 
learned gave it no credence, saying that the signs 
predicted in Scripture to precede that event were 
not yet accomplished, and among other that the 
Roman empire was not yet abolished. . . . Others 
said that, as for the signs, the majority had already 
appeared to the best of their knowledge, and with 
regard to the rest, they might have taken place in 
distant regions without their having been made 
known to them ; that the Roman empire existed 
but in name, and that the interpretation of the 
passage on which its destruction was predicted, 
might be incorrect; that for many centuries, the 
most learned and pious had believed in the near 
approach of Antichrist, some believing that he had 
already come, on account of the persecutions which 
had fallen on the Christians ; others, on account of 



170 Antichrist and Pope Joan, 

fires, or eclipses, or earthquakes. . . . Ever}^ one was 
in excitement ; some declared that the news must be 
correct, others believed nothing about it, and the 
agitation became so excessive, that Henry IV., who 
was then on the throne, was compelled by edict to 
forbid any mention of the subject." 

The report spoken of by Moreau gained additional 
confirmation from the announcement made by an ex- 
orcised demoniac, that in 1600, the Man of Sin had 
been born in the neighborhood of Paris, of a Jewess, 
named Blanchefleure, who had conceived by Satan. 
The child had been baptized at the Sabbath of Sor- 
cerers ; and a witch, under torture, acknowledged 
that she had rocked the infant Antichrist on her 
knees, and she averred that he had claws on his 
feet, wore no shoes, and spoke all languages. 

In 1623 appeared the following startling announce- 
ment, which obtained an immense circulation among 
the lower orders : '' We, brothers of the Order of St. 
John of Jerusalem, in the Isle of Malta, have received 
letters from our spies, who are engaged in our ser- 
vice in the country of Babylon, now possessed by the 
Grand Turk ; by the which letters we are advertised, 
that, on the ist of May, in the year of our Lord 



I 



Antichrist and Pope Joan. ij'i 

1623, a child was born in the town of Bourydot, 
otherwise called Calka, near Babylon, of the which 
child the mother is a yery aged woman, of race 
unknown, called Fort-Juda : of the father nothing is 
known. The child is dusky, has pleasant mouth and 
eyes, teeth pointed like those of a cat, ears large, 
stature by no means exceeding that of other chil- 
dren ; the said child, incontinent on his birth, walked 
and talked perfectly well. His speech is compre- 
hended by every one, admonishing the people that 
he is the true Messiah, and the son of God, and that 
in him all must believe. Our spies also swear and 
protest that they have seen the said child with their 
own eyes ; and they add, that, on the occasion of his 
nativity, there appeared marvellous signs in heaven, 
for at full noon the sun lost its brightness, and was 
for some time obscured." This is followed by a list 
of other signs appearing, the most remarkable being 
a swarm of flying serpents, and a shower of precious 
stones. 

According to Sebastian Michaeliz, in his history of 
the possessed of Flanders, on the authority of the ex- 
orcised demobs, we learn that Antichrist is to be a 
Ison of Beelzebub, who will accompany his offspring 



1^2 Antichrist and Pope jfoam^ 

under the form of a bird, with four feet and a bull's 
head ; that he will torture Christians with the same 
tortures with which the lost souls are racked ; that 
he will be able to fly, speak all languages, and will 
Jiave any number of names. 

We find that Antichrist is known to the Mussul- 
mans as well as to Christians. Lane, in his edition 
of the " Arabian Nights," gives some curious details 
on Moslem ideas regarding him. According to 
these. Antichrist will overrun the earth, mounted on 
an ass, and followed by 40,000 Jews ; his empire 
will last forty days, whereof the first day will 
be a year long, the duration of the second will 
be a month, that of the third a week, the others 
being of their usual length. He will devastate the 
whole world, leaving Mecca and Medina alone in 
security, as these holy cities will be guarded by 
angelic legions. Christ at last will descend to earth, 
and in a great battle will destroy the Man-devil. 

Several writers, of different denominations, no less 
superstitious than the common people, connected the 
apparition of Antichrist with the fable of Pope Joan, 
which obtained such general credence at one time, 
b;it which modern criticism has at length succeeded 
in excluding from history. 



Antichrist and Pofe Joan, 173 

Perhaps the earliest writer to mention Pope Joan 
is Marianus Scotus, who in his chronicle inserts the 
following passage : " A. D. 854, Lotharii 14, Joanna, 
a woman, succeeded Leo, and reigned two years, 
five months, and four days." Marianus Scotus died 
A. D. 1086. Sigebert de Gemblours (d. 5th Oct., 
1 1 12) inserts the same story in his valuable chroni- 
cle, copying from an interpolated passage in the work 
of Anastasius the librarian. His words are, '' It is 
reported that this John was a female, and that she 
conceived by one of her servants. The Pope, be- 
coming pregnant, gave birth to a child ; wherefore 
some do not number her among the Pontiffs." Hence 
the story spread among the mediaeval chroniclers, 
who were great plagiarists. Otto of Frisingen and 
Gotfrid of Viterbo mention the Lady-Pope in their 
histories, and Martin Polonus gives details as fol- 
lows : " After Leo IV., John Anglus, a native of 
Metz, reigned two years, five months, and four days. 
And the pontificate was vacant for a month. He died 
in Rome. He is related to have been a female, and, 
when a girl, to have accompanied her sweetheart in 
male costume to Athens ; there she advanced in va- 
rious sciences, and none could be found to equal her. 



1 74 Antichrist and Pofe yoan. 

So, after having studied for three years in Rome, 
she had great masters for her pupils and hearers. 
And when there arose a high opinion in the city of 
her virtue and knowledge, she was unanimously 
elected Pope. But during her papacy she became 
in the family way by a familiar. Not knowing the 
time of birth, as she was on her way from St. Peter's 
to the Lateran she had a painful delivery, between 
the Coliseum and St. Clement's Church, in the street. 
Having died after, it is said that she was buried on 
the spot ; and therefore the Lord Pope always turns 
aside from that way, and it is supposed by some out 
of detestation for what happened there. Nor on that 
account is she placed in the catalogue of the Holy 
Pontiffs, not only on account of her sex, but also 
because of the horribleness of the circumstance." 
Certainly a story at all scandalous crescit eundo, 
William Ocham alludes to the story, and John 
Huss, only too happy to believe it, provides the lady 
with a name, and asserts that she was baptized 
Agnes, or, as he will have it with a strong aspirate, 
Hagnes. Others, however, insist upon her name 
having been Gilberta ; and some stout Germans, not 
relishing the notion of her being a daughter of Fa- 



Antichrist and Pope Joan, 275 

therland, palm her off on England. As soon as we 
aiiive at Reformation times, the German and French 
Protestants fasten on the story with the utmost 
avidity, and add sweet little touches of their own, 
and draw conclusions galling enough to the Roman 
See, illustrating their accounts with wood engravings 
vigorous and graphic, but hardly decent. One of 
these represents the event in a peculiarly startling 
manner. The procession of bishops, with the Host 
and tapers, is sweeping along, when suddenly the 
cross-bearer before the triple-crowned and vested 
Pope starts aside to witness the unexpected arrival. 
This engraving, which it is quite impossible for me 
to reproduce, is in a curious little book, entitled 
'' Puerperium Johannis Papse 8, 1530." 

The following jingling record of the event is from 
the Rhythmical Vitae Pontificum of Gulielmus Jaco- 
bus of Egmpnden, a work never printed. This 
fragment is preserved in " Wolffii Lectionum Memo- 
rabilium centenarii, XVI.:" — 

*' Priusquam reconditur Sergius, vocatur 
Ad summam, qui dicitur Johannes, huic addatur 
Anglicus, Moguntia iste procreatur. 
Quij ut dat sententia, foeminis aptatur 
Sexu : quod sequentia monstrant, breviatur, 



1^6 Antichrist and Pope yoan, 

Hsec vox : nam prolixius chronica procedunt. 
Ista, de qua brevius dicta minus Isedunt. 
Huic erat amasius, ut scriptores credunt. 
Patria relinquitur Moguntia, Graecorum 
Studiose petitur schola. Post doctorum 
Haec doctrix efficitur Romse legens : horum 
Haec auditu fungitur loquens. Hinc prostrato 
Summo hsec eligitur : sexu exaltato 
Quandoque negligitur. Fatur quod hsec nato 
Per servum conficitur. Tempore gignendi 
Ad processum equus scanditur, vice flendi, 
Papa cadit, panditur improbis ridendi 
Norma, puer nascitur in vico dementis, 
Colossceum jungitur. Corpus parentis 
In eodem traditur sepulturae gentis, 
Faturque scriptoribus, quod Papa praefato, 
Vico senioribus transiens amato 
Congruo ductoribus sequitur negato 
Loco, quo Ecclesia partu denigratur, 
Quamvis inter spacia Pontificum ponatur, 
Propter sexum." 

Stephen Blanch, in his ''Urbis Romae Mirabilia," 
says that an angel of heaven appeared to Joan 
before the event, and asked her to choose w^hether 
she v^^ould prefer burning eternally in hell, or hav- 
ing her confinement in public ; w^ith sense vs^hich 
does her credit, she chose the latter. The Protes- 
tant winters were not satisfied that the father of 
the unhappy baby should have been a servant : some 



AntcchiHst and Pope jFoan, 177 

made him a Cardinal, and others the devil himself. 
According to an eminent Dutch minister, it is im- 
material whether the child be fathered on Satan 
or a monk ; at all events, the former took a lively- 
interest in the youthful Antichrist, and, on the oc- 
casion of his birth, v^as seen and heard fluttering 
overhead, crov^ing and chanting in an unmusical 
voice the Sibylline verses announcing the birth of 
the Arch-persecutor : — 

*'Papa pater patrum, Papissse pandito partum 
Et tibi tunc eadem de corpore quando recedam ! " 

which lines, as being perhaps the only ones known 
to be of diabolic composition, are deserving of pres- 
ervation. 

The Reformers, in order to reconcile dates, were 
put to the somewhat perplexing necessity of moving 
Pope Joan to their own times, or else of giving to 
the youthful Antichrist an age of seven hundred 
3^ears. 

It must be allowed that the accouchement of a 
Pope in full pontificals, during a solemn procession, 
was a prodigy not likely to occur more than once 
in the world's history, and was certain to be of 
momentous import, 
12 



1^8 Antichrist and Pop,e jfoan. 

It will be seen by the curious woodcut repro- 
duced as frontispiece from Baptista Mantuanus, that 
he consigned Pope Joan to the jaws of hell, not- 
withstanding her choice. The verses accompanying 
tliis picture are : — 

" Hie pendebat adhuc sexum mentita virile 
Foemina, cui triplici Phrjgiam diademate mitram 
ExtoUebat apex : et pontificalis adulter." 

It need hardly be stated that the whole story of 
Pope Joan is fabulous, and rests on not the slightest 
historical foundation. It was probably a Greek in- 
vention to throw discredit on the papal hierarchy, 
first . circulated more than two hundred years after 
the date of the supposed Pope* Even Martin Polo- 
nus (A. D. 1282), who is the first to give the details, 
does so merely on popular report. 

The great champions of the myth were the Prot- 
estants of the sixteenth century, who were thorough- 
ly unscrupulous in distorting history and suppressing 
facts, so long as they could make a point. A paper 
war was waged upon the subject, and finally the 
w^hole story was proved conclusively to be utterly 
destitute of historical truth. A melancholy example 
of the blindness of party feeling and * prejudice is 



Antichrist a7id Pope Joan. 179 

seen in Mosheim, who assumes the truth of the 
ridiculous story, and gravely inserts it in his '' Ec- 
clesiastical History." '' Between Leo IV., who died 
855, and Benedict III., a woman, who concealed 
her sex and assumed the name of John, it is said, 
opened her way to the Pontifical throne by her 
learning and genius, and governed the Church for 
a time. She is commonly called the Papess Joan. 
During the five subsequent centuries the witnesses 
to this extraordinary event are without number ; nor 
did any one, prior to the Reformation by Luther, 
regard the thing as either incredible or disgraceful 
to the Church." Such are Mosheim's words, and 
I give them as a specimen of the credit which is 
due to his opinion. The '' Ecclesiastical History " 
he w^rote is full of perversions of the plainest facts, 
and that under our notice is but one out of many. 
" During the five centuries after her reign," he says, 
" the witnesses to the story are innumerable." Now, 
for two centuries there is not an allusion to be 
found to the events. The only passage which can 
be found is a universally acknowledged interpola- 
tion of the " Lives of the Popes," by Anastasius 
Bi])liothecarIus ; and this interpolation is stated in 



l8o Antichrist and Pope Joan. 

the first printed edition by Busaeus, Mogunt. 1602, 
to be only found in two MS. copies. 

From Marianus Scotus or Sigebert de Gemblours 
the story passed into other chronicles totidem verbis^ 
and generally with hesitation and an expression of 
doubt in its accuracy. Martin Polonus is the first 
to give the particulars, some four hundred and 
twenty years after the reign of the fabulous Pope. 

Mosheim is false again in asserting that no one 
prior to the Reformation regarded the thing as 
either incredible or disgraceful. This is but of a 
piece with his malignity and disregard for truth, 
whenever he can hit the Catholic Church hard. 
Bart. Platina, in his " Lives of the Popes," written 
before Luther was born, after relating the story, says, 
'' These things which I relate are popular reports, 
but derived from uncertain and obscure authors, 
which I have therefore inserted briefly and baldly, 
lest I should seem to omit obstinately and pertina- 
ciously what most people assert." Thus the facts < 
were justly doubted by Platina on the legitimate 
grounds that they rested on popular gossip, and not 
on relzable history. Marianus Scotus, the first to 
relate the story, died in 1086. He was a monk 



Antichrist and Pope Joan. i8i 

of St. Martin of Cologne, then of Fulda, and lastly 
of St. Alban's, at Metz. How could he have ob- 
tained reliable information, or seen documents upon 
which to ground the assertion? Again, his chron- 
icle lias suffered severely from interpolations in nu- 
merous places, and there is reason to believe that 
the Pope-Joan passage is itself a late interpolation. 

If so, we are reduced to Sigebert de Gemblours 
(d. 1 112), placing two centuries and a half between 
him and the event he records, and his chronicle 
may have been tampered with. 

The historical discrepancies are sufficiently glar- 
ing to make the story more than questionable. 

Leo IV. died on the 17th July, 855 ; and Benedict 
III. was consecrated on the ist September in the 
same year ; so that it is impossible to insert between 
their pontificates a reign of two years, five months, 
and four days. It is, however, true that there was 
an antipope elected upon the death of Leo, at the 
instance of the Emperor Louis ; but his name was 
Anastasius. This man possessed himself of the 
palace of the Popes, and obtained the incarceration 
of Benedict. However, his supporters almost im- 
mediately deserted him, and Benedict assumed the 



1 82 Antichrist and Pope Joan. 

pontificate. The reign of Benedict was only for 
two years and a half, so that Anastasius cannot 
be the supposed Joan ; nor do we hear of any 
charge brought against him to the effect of his 
being a woman. But the stout partisans of the 
Pope-Joan tale assert, on the authority of the " An- 
nates Augustani," *. and some other, but late au- 
thorities, that the female Pope was John VIII., 
who consecrated Louis II. of France, and Ethel- 
wolf of England. Here again is" confusion. Ethel- 
wolf sent Alfred to Rome in 853, and the youth 
received regal unction from tlie hands of Leo IV. 
In 855 Ethelwolf visited Rome, it is true, but 
was not consecrated by the existing Pope, whilst 
Charles the Bald was anointed by John VIII. in 
875. John VIII. was a Roman, son of Gundus, 
and an archdeacon of the Eternal City. He as- 
sumed the triple crown in 872, and reigned till 
December 18, 882. John took an active part in the 
troubles of the Church under the incursions of the 
Sarasins, and 325 letters of his are extant, ad 
dressed to the princes and prelates of his day. 
Any one desirous of pursuing this examination 

* These Annals were written in 1135. 



Antichrist and Pope yoan. 183 

into the untenable nature of the story may find an 
excellent summary of the arguments used on both 
sides in Gieseler, " Lehrbuch," &c., Cunningham's 
trans,, vol. ii. pp. 20, 21, or in Bayle, " Diction- 
naire," tom. iii. art. Papesse. 

The arguments in favor of the myth may be 
seen in Spanheim, " Exercit. de Papa FoBmina," 
Opp. tom. ii. p. 577, or in Lenfant, '' Histoire de 
la Papesse Jeanne," La Haye, 1736, 2 vols. i2mo. 

The arguments on the other side may be had in 
"Allatii Confutatio Fabulas de Johanna Papissa," 
Colon. 1645 ; in Le Quien, " Oriens Christianus," 
tom^. iii. p. 777 ; and in the pages of the Lutheran 
Huemann, '' Sylloge Diss. Sacras.," tom. i. par. ii. 

P- 352. 

The final development of this extraordinary story, 
under the delieate fingers of the German and 
French Protestant controversialists, may not prove 
uninteresting. 

Joan was the daughter of an English missionary, 
who left England to preach the Gospel to the re- 
cently converted Saxons. She was born at En- 
gelheim, and according to different authors she 
was christened Agnes, Gerberta, Joanna, Margaret, 



184 Antichrist and Pope Joan. 

Isabel, Dorothy, or Jutt — the last must have been 
a nickname surely ! She early distinguished her- 
self for genius and love of letters. A young monk 
of Fulda having conceived for her a violent pas- 
sion, w^hich she returned with ardor, she deserted 
her parents, dressed herself in male attire, and in 
the sacred precincts of Fulda divided her affec- 
tions between the youthful monk and the musty 
books of the monastic library. Not satisfied with 
the restraints of conventual life, nor finding the 
library sufiiciently well provided with books of 
abstruse science, she eloped with her young man, 
and after visiting England, France, and Italy, she 
brought him to Athens, where she addicted herself 
with unflagging devotion to her literary pursuits. 
Wearied out by his journey, the monk expired in 
the arms of the blue-stocking who had influenced 
his life for evil, and the young lady of so many 
aliases was for a while inconsolable. She left 
Athens and repaired to Rome. There she opened 
a school and acquired such a reputation for learn- 
ing and feigned sanctity, that, on the death of Leo 
IV., she was unanimously elected Pope. For two 
years and five months, under the name of John 



Antichrist and Pope yoan. 185 

VIII., she filled the papal chair with reputation, 
no one suspecting her sex. But having taken a 
fancy to one of the cardinals, by him she became 
pregnant. At length arrived the time of Rogation 
processions. Whilst passing the street between the 
amphitheatre and St. Clement's, she was seized 
with violent pains, fell to the ground amidst the 
crowd, and, whilst her attendants ministered to her, 
w^as delivered of a son. Some say the child and 
mother died on the spot, some that she survived 
but was incarcerated, some that the child was 
spirited away to be the Antichrist of the last days. 
A marble monument representing the papess with 
her baby was erected on the spot, which was de- 
clared to be accursed to all ages. 

I have little doubt myself that Pope Joan is an 
impersonification of the great whore ^'^^ Revelation, 
seated on the seven hills, and '". 
pression of the idea prevalent li 
the sixteenth centuries, that the my>;i crv^ 
was somehow working in the papan 
scandal of the Antipopes, the utter work, 
pride of others, the spiritual fornication \ 




i86 Antichrist and Pope Joan, 

kings of the earth, along with the words of Rev- 
elation prophesying the advent of an adulterous 
woman who should rule over the imperial city, 
and her connection with Antichrist, crystallized 
into this curious myth, much as the floating uncer- 
tainty as to the signification of our Lord's words, 
" There be some standing here which shall not 
taste of death till they see the kingdom of God," 
condensed into the myth of the Wandering Jew. 

The literature connected with Antichrist is volu- 
minous. I need only specify some of the most 
curious works which have appeared on the sub- 
ject. St. Hippolytus and Rabanus Maurus have 
been already alluded to. Commodianus wrote 
" Carmen Apologeticum adversus Gentes," which 
has been published by Dom Pitra in his " Spicile- 
gium Solesmense," with an introduction contain- 
ing Jewish . and Christian traditions relating to 
Antichrist. " De Turpissima Conceptione, Nativi- 
tate, et alms Praesagiis Diaboliciis illius Turpissimi 
Homines Antichristi," is the title of a strange little 
voluipc published by Lenoir in A. D. 1500, con- 
tairiing rude yet characteristic woodcuts, represent- 



Antichrist and Pope Joan. 187 

ing the birth, life, and deSlf^tlf^-^tia^g Man of Sin, 
each picture accompanied by French verses in ex- 
planation. An equally remarkable illustrated work 
on Antichrist is the famous " Liber de Antichristo," 
a blockbook of an early date. It is in twenty-seven 
folios, and is excessively rare. Dibdin has repro- 
duced three of the plates in his " Bibliotheca Spen- 
sei:iana," and Falckenstein has given full details of 
the work in his " Geschichte der Buchdrucker- 
kunst." 

There is an Easter miracle-play of the twelfth 
century, still extant, the subject of which is the 
*' Life and Death of Antichrist." More curious 
still is the " Farce de I'Antechrist et de Trois 
Femmes" — a composition of the sixteenth centu- 
ry, when that mysterious personage occupied all 
brains. The farce consists in a scene at a fish- 
stall, with three good ladies quarrelling over some 
fish. Antichrist steps in, — for no particular reason 
that one can see, — upsets fish and fish-women, sets 
them fighting, and skips oft' the stage. The best 
book on Antichrist, and that most full of learning 
und judgment, is Malvenda's great work in two 



1 88 Antichrist and Pope jfoan. 

folio volumes, " De Antichristo, libri xii." Lyons, 
1647. 

For the fable of the Pope Joan, see J. Lenfant, 
*'Histoire de la Papesse Jeanne." La Haye, 1736, 
2 vols. i2mo. " Allatii Confutatio Fabulae de Johan- 
na Papissa." Colon. 1645. 



189 



®ljc iHan in tl)e iHoon. 




From L, Richter. 

EVERY one knows that the moon is inhabited 
by a man with a bundle of sticks on his back, 
who has been exiled thither for many centuries, 
and who is so far off that he is beyond the reach 
of death. 

He has once visited this earth, if the nursery 
rhyme is to be credited, when it asserts that — 

"The Man in the Moon 
Came down too soon, 
And asked his way to Norwich ; " 

but whether he ever reached that city, the same 
authority does not state. 



190 The Man in the Moon. 

The story as told by nurses is, that this man was 
found by Moses gathering sticks on a Sabbath, 
and that, for this crime, he was doomed to reside 
in the moon till the end of all things ; and they 
refer to Numbers xv. 32-36 : — 

" And while the children of Israel were in the 
wilderness, they found a man that gathered sticks 
upon the Sabbath day. And they that found him 
gathering sticks brought him unto Moses and 
Aaron, and unto all the congregation. And they 
put him in ward, because it was not declared what 
should be done to him. And the Lord said unto 
Moses, The man shall be surely put to death : all 
the congregation shall stone him with stones with- 
out the camp. And all the congregation brought 
him without the camp, and stoned him with stones 
till he died." 

Of course, in the sacred writings there is no 
allusion to the moon. 

The German tale is as follows : — 

Ages ago there went one Sunday morning an 
old man into the wood to hew sticks. He cut a 
fagot and slung it on a stout staff, cast it over 
his shoulder, and began to trudge home with his 



The Man in the Moon'. 



191 



burden. On his way he met a handsome man 
in Sunday suit, walking towards the Church ; this 
man stopped and asked the fagot-bearer, ''Do you 
know that this is Sunday on earth, when all must 
rest from their labors ? " 

" Sunday on earth, or Monday in heaven, it is 
all one to me ! " laughed the wood-cutter. 

" Then bear your bundle forever," answered the 
stranger ; " and as you value not Sunday on earth, 
yours shall be a perpetual Moon-day in heaven ; 
and you shall stand for eternity in the moon, a 
warning to all Sabbath-breakers." Thereupon the 
stranger vanished, and the man was caught up with 
his stock and his fagot into the moon, where he 
stands yet. 

The superstition seems to be old in Germany, for 
the full moon is spoken of as wadel^ or wedel^ sl 
fagot. Tobler relates the story thus : " An arma 
ma ket alawel am Sonnti holz ufglesa. Do hedem 
der liebe Gott dwahl gloh, ob er lieber wott ider 
sonn verbrenna oder im mo verfrura, do wilier 
lieber inn mo ihi. Dromm siedina no jetz an ma 
im mo inna, wenns wedel ist, Er bed a piischeli 
uffem rogga." * That is to say, he was given the 
* Tobler, Aprienz. Sprachsbuch, 20. 



192 The Man in the Moon. 

choice of burning in the sun, or of freezing in the 
moon ; he chose the latter ; and now at full moon 
he is to be seen seated with his bundle of fagots 
on his back. 

In Schaumburg-Lippe,* the story goes, that a 
man and a woman stand in the moon, the man 
because he strewed brambles and thorns on the 
church path, so as to hinder people from attend- 
ing Mass on Sunday morning; the woman because 
she made butter on that day. The man carries 
his bundle of thorns, the woman her butter-tub. 
A similar tale is told in Swabia and in Marken. 
Fischart f says, that there " is to be seen in the 
moon a manikin who stole wood ; " and Praetorius, 
in his description of the world, { that " superstitious 
people assert that the black flecks in the moon are 
a man who gathered wood on a Sabbath, and is 
therefore turned into stone." 

The Dutch household myth is, that the unhappy 
man was caught stealing vegetables. Dante calls 
him Cain : — 

* Wolf, Zeitschrift filr Deut. Myth. i. 168. 
t Fischart, Garg. 130. 
X Praetorius, 1. 447. 



The Man in the Moon. 193 

** • . . Now doth Cain with fork of thorns confine, 
On either hemisphere, touching the wave 
Beneath the towers of Seville. Yesternight 
The moon was round." — Hell^ cant. xx. 

And again, — 

"... Tell, I pray thee, whence the gloomy spots 
Upon this body, which below on earth 
Give rise to talk of Cain in fabling quaint } " 

Paradise^, cant. ii. 

Chaucer, in the " Testament of Cresside," adverts 
to the man in the moon, and attributes to him the 
same idea of theft. Of Lady Cynthia, or the moon, 
he says, — 

"Her gite was gray and full of spottis blake, 
And on her brest a chorle painted ful even, 
Bering a bush of thornis on his backe, 
Whiche for his theft might clime so ner the heaven." 

Ritson, among his " Ancient Songs," gives one 
extracted from a manuscript of the time of Edward 
II., on the Man in the Moon, but in very obscure 
language. The first verse, altered into more modern 
orthography, runs as follov^s : — 

" Man in the Moon stand and stit. 

On his bot-fork his burden he beareth, 
It is much wonder that he do na doun slit. 

For doubt lest he fall he shudd'reth and shivereth. 



13 



194 ^^ Man in the Moon. 

" When the frost freezes must chill he bide, 
The thorns be keen his attire so teareth, 
Nis no wight in the world there wot when he syt, 
Ne bote it by the hedge what weeds he weareth." 

Alexander Necham, or Nequam, a writer of the 

twelfth century, In commenting on the dispersed 

shadows in the moon, thus alludes to the vulgar 

belief: " Nonne novisti quid vulgus vocet rusti- 

cum In luna portantem spinas? Unde quldam 

vulgarlter loquens ait : — 

'* Rusticus in Luna, 
Quern sarcina deprimit una 
Monstrat per opinas 
Nulli prodesse rapinas," 

which may be translated thus : " Do you know 

what they call the rustic In the moon, who carries 

the fagot of sticks? So that one vulgarly speak' 

ing says,— 

** See the rustic in the Moon, 
How his bundle weighs him down; 
Thus his sticks the truth reveal, 
It never profits man to steal." 

Shakspeare refers to the same individual in his 
"Midsummer Night's Dream." Qiilnce the car- 
penter, giving directions for the performance of the 
play of " Pyramus and Thisbe," orders : " One must 



The Man in the Moon, 195 

come in with a bush of thorns and a lantern, and say 
he comes in to disfigure, or to present, the person 
of Moonshine." And the enacter of this part says, 
"All I have to say is, to tell you that the lantern 
is the moon ; I the man in the moon ; this thorn- 
bush my thorn-bush ; and this dog my dog." 
Also " Tempest," Act 2, Scene 2 : — 

** C^/. Hast thou not dropt from heaven? 

** Steph, Out o' th' moon, I do assure thee. I was the man 
in th' moon when time was. 

** Cal. I have seen thee in her; and I do adore thee. My 
mistress showed me thee, and thy dog, and thy bush." 

The dog I have myself had pointed out to me by 
an old Devonshire crone. If popular superstition 
places a dog in the moon, it puts a lamb in the 
sun ; for in the same county it is said that those 
who see the sun rise on Easter-day, may behold in 
the orb the lamb and flag. 

I believe this idea of locating animals in the two 
great luminaries of heaven to be very ancient, and 
to be a relic of a primeval superstition of the Aryan 
race. 

There is an ancient pictorial representation of 
our friend the Sabbath-breaker in GyfTyn Church, 



ig6 The Man in the Moon. 

near Conway. The roof of the chancel is divided 
into compartments, in four of which are the Evan- 
gelistic symbols, rudely, yet effectively painted. Be- 
sides these symbols is delineated in each compart- 
ment an orb of heaven. The sun, the moon, and 
two stars, are placed at the feet of the Angel, 
the Bull, the Lion, and the Eagle. The represen- 
tation of the moon is as below ; in the disk is the 




conventional man with his bundle of sticks, but 
without the dog. There is also a curious seal ap- 
pended to a deed preserved in the Record Office, 
dated the 9th year of Edward the Third (1335)5 
bearing the man in the moon as its device. The 
deed is one of conveyance of a messuage, barn, and 
fuur acres of ground, in the parish of Kingston-on- 
Thames, from Walter de Grendesse, clerk, to Mar- 
garet his mother. On the seal we see the man 



The Man in the Moon, 197 

carrying his sticks, and the moon surrounds him. 

There are also a couple of stars added, perhaps to 

show that he is in the sky. The legend on the 

seal reads: — 

" Te Waltere docebo 
cur spinas phebo ^ 
gero," 

which may be translated, " I will teach thee, Walter, 
why I carry thorns in the moon." 




The general superstition with regard to the spots 
in the moon may briefly be summed up thus : A 
man is located in the moon; he is a thief or Sab- 
bath-breaker ; * he has a pole over his shoulder, from 

* Hebel, in his charming poem on the Man in the Moon, 
in *' Allemanische Gedichte," makes him both thief and 
Sabbath-breaker. 



198 The Man in the Moon. 

which IS suspended a bundle of sticks or thorns. In 
some places a woman is believed to accompany him, 
and she has a butter-tub with her ; in other locali- 
ties she is replaced by a dog. 

The belief in the Moon-man seems to exist among 
the natives of British Columbia ; for I read in one 
of Mr. Duncan's letters to the Church Missionary 
Society, " One very dark night I was told that there 
was a moon to see on the beach. On going to see, 
there was an illuminated disk, with the figure of a 
man upon it. The water was then very low, and 
one of the conjuring parties had lit up this disk at 
the water's edge. They had made it of wax, with 
great exactness, and presently it was at full. It was 
an imposing sight. Nothing could be seen around 
it; but the Indians suppose that the medicine party 
are then holding converse with the man in the 
moon. . . . After a short time the moon waned away, 
and the conjuring party returned whooping to their 
house." 

Now let us turn to Scandinavian mythology, and 
see what we learn from that source. 

Mani, the moon, stole two children from their 
parents, and carried them up to heaven. Their 



The Man in the Moon. 199 

names were Hjuki and Bil. They had been draw- 
ing water from the well Byrgir, in the bucket Soegr, 
suspended from the pole Simul, which they bore 
upon their shoulders. These children, pole, and 
bucket were placed in heaven, " where they could 
be seen from earth." This refers undoubtedly to 
the spots in the moon ; and so the Swedish peas- 
antry explain these spots to this day, as representing 
a boy and a girl bearing a pail of water between 
them. Are we not reminded at once of our nursery 
rhyme — 

"Jack and Jill went up a hill 
To fetch a pail of water ; 
Jack fell down, and broke his crown, 
And Jill came tumbling after"? 

This verse, which to us seems at first sight non- 
sense, I have no hesitation in saying has a high 
antiquity, and refers to the Eddaic Hjuki and Bil. 
The names indicate as much. Hjuki, in Norse, 
would be pronounced Juki, which would readily 
l/ccomejack; and Bil, for the sake of euphony, and 
in order to give a female name to one of the chil- 
dren, would become Jill. 

The fall of Jack, and the subsequent fall of Jill, 



200 The Man in the Moon. 

simply represent the vanishing of one moon-spol 
after another, as the moon wanes. 

But the old Norse myth had a deeper significa^ 
tion than merely an explanation of the moon-spots. 

Hjuki is derived from the verb jakka, to heap or 
pile together, to assemble and increase ; and Bil 
from bila, to break up or dissolve. Hjuki and Bil, 
therefore, signify nothing more than the waxing and 
waning of the moon, and the water they are repre- 
sented as bearing signifies the fact that the rainfall 
depends on the phases of the moon. Waxing and 
waning were individualized, and the meteorological 
fact of the connection of the rain with the moon was 
represented by the children as water-bearers. 

But though Jack and Jill became by degrees dis- 
severed in the popular mind from the moon, the 
original myth went through a fresh phase, and exists 
still under a new form. The Norse superstition 
attributed theft to the moon, and the vulgar soon 
began to believe that the figure they saw in the moon 
was the thief. The lunar specks certainly may be 
made to resemble one figure, and only a lively im- 
agination can discern two. The girl soon dropped 
out of popular mythology, the boy oldened into a 



The Man in the Moon, 20T 

venerable man, he retained his pole, and the bucket 
was transformed into the thing he had stolen — 
sticks or vegetables. The theft was in some places 
exchanged for Sabbath-breaking, especially among 
those in Protestant countries who were acquainted 
with the Bible story of the stick-gatherer. 

The Indian superstition is worth examining, be- 
cause of the connection existing between Indian and 
European mythology, on account of our belonging 
to the same Aryan stock. 

According to a Buddhist legend, Sakyamunni him- 
self, in one of his earlier stages of existence, was a 
hare, and lived in friendship with a fox and an ape. 
In order to test the virtue of the Bodhisattwa, Indra 
came to the friends, in the form of an old man, ask- 
ing for food. Hare, ape, and fox went forth in quest 
of victuals for their guest. The two latter returned 
from their foraging expedition successful, but the 
hare had found nothing. Then, rather than that he 
should treat the old man with inhospitality, the hare 
had a fire kindled, and cast himself into the flames, 
that he might himself become food for his guest. 
In reward for this act of self-sacrifice, Indra car- 



202 The Man in the Moon. 

ried the hare to heaven, and placed him in the 
moon.* 

Here we have an old man and a hare in connec- 
tion v^ith the lunar planet, just as in Shakspeare we 
have a fagot-bearer and a dog. 

The fable rests upon the name of the moon in 
Sanskrit, 9a5in, or " that marked with the hare ; ' 
but whether the belief in the spots taking the shape 
of a hare gave the name 5a9in to the moon, or the 
lunar name 5a5in originated the belief, it is impossi 
ble for us to say. 

Grounded upon this myth is the curious story ot 
" The Hare and the Elephant," in the " Pantscha- 
tantra," an ancient collection of Sanskrit fables. It 
will be found as the first tale in the third book. I 
have room only for an outline of the story. 

THE CRAFTY HARE. 

In a certain forest lived a mighty elephant, king 
of a herd. Toothy by name. On a certain occasion 
there was a long drought, so that pools, tanks, 

* ** M6moires . . . par Hjouen Thsang, traduits du Chinois 
par Stanislas Julien," i. 375. Upham, ** Sacred Books of 
Ceylon," iii. 309. 



The Man in the Moon, 



203 



swamps, and lakes were dried up. Then the ele- 
phants sent out exploring parties in search of water. 
A young one discovered an extensive lake surrounded 
with trees, and teeming with water-fowl. It went 
by the name of the Moon-lake. The elephants, de- 
lighted at the prospect of having an inexhaustible 
supply of water, marched off to the spot, and found 
their most sanguine hopes realized. Round about 
the lake, in the sandy soil, were innumerable hare 
warrens ; and as the herd of elephants trampled on 
the ground, the hares were severely injured, their 
homes broken down, their heads, legs, and backs 
crushed beneath the ponderous feet of the monsters 
of the forest. As soon as the herd had withdrawn, 
the hares assembled, some halting, some dripping 
with blood, some bearing the corpses of their cher- 
ished infants, some with piteous tales of ruination 
in their houses, all with tears streaming from their 
eyes, and wailing forth, "Alas, we are lost! The 
elephant-herd will return, for there is no water else- 
where, and that will be the death of all of us." 

But the wise and prudent Longear volunteered 
to drive the herd away ; and he succeeded in this 
manner : Longear went to the elephants, and hav- 



204 The Man in the Moon. 

ing singled out their king, he addressed him as 
follows : — 

" Ha, ha ! bad elephant ! what brings you with 
such thoughtless frivolity to this strange lake? Back 
with you at once ! " 

When the king of the elephants heard this, he 
asked fn astonishment, "Pray, who are you?" 

'' I," replied Longear, — "I am Vidschajadatta by 
name ; the hare who resides in the Moon, Now 
am I sent by his Excellency the Moon as an ambas- 
sador to you. I speak to you in the name of the 
Moon." 

" Ahem ! Hare," said the elephant, somewhat stag- 
gered ; " and what message have you brought me 
from his Excellency the Moon?" 

" You have this day injured several hares. x\re 
you not aware that they are the subjects of me? 
If you value your life, venture not near the lake 
again. Break my command, and I shall withdraw 
my beams from you at night, and your bodies will 
be consumed with perpetual sun." 

The elephant, after a short meditation, said, 
"Friend! it is true that I have acted against the 
rights of the excellent Majesty of the Moon. I 



The Man in the Moon. 205 

should wish to make an apology; how can I do 
so?" 

The hare replied, " Come along with me, and I 
will show you." 

The elephant asked, " Where is his Excellency at 
present ? " 

The other replied, " He is now in the lake, hear- 
ing the complaints of the maimed hares." 

''If that be the case," said the elephant, humbly, 
"bring me to my lord, that I may tender him my 
submission." 

So the hare conducted the king of the elephants 
to the edge of the lake, and showed him the re- 
flection of the moon in the water, saying, " There 
stands our lord in the midst of the water, plunged 
in meditation ; reverence him wath devotion, and 
then depart with speed." 

Thereupon the elephant poked his proboscis into 
the water, and muttered a fervent prayer. By so 
doing he set the water in agitation, so that the re- 
flection of the moon was all of a quiver. 

" Look ! " exclaimed the hare ; " his Majesty is 
trembling with rage at you ! " 

" Why is his supreme Excellency enraged with 
me?" asked the elephant. 



2o6 The Man in the Moon. 

" Because you have set the water in motion. 
Worship him, and then be off! " 

The elephant let his ears droop, bowed his great 
head to the earth, and after having expressed in 
suitable terms his regret for having annoyed the 
Moon, and the hare dwelling in it, he vowed never 
to trouble the Moon-lake again. Then he departed, 
and the hares have ever since lived there unmo- 
lested. 



207 



^\)t iHountam of l)enu0. 

RAGGED, bald, and desolate, as though a curse 
rested upon it, rises the Horselberg out of the 
rich and populous land between Eisenach and Gotha, 
looking, from a distance, like a huge stone sarcoph- 
agus — a sarcophagus in which rests in magical 
slumber, till the end of all things, a mysterious world 
of wonders. 

High up on the north-west flank of the mountain, 
in a precipitous wall of rock, opens a cavern, called 
Jthe Horselloch, from the depths of which issues a 
muffled roar of water, as though a subterraneous 
stream were rushing over rapidly;^hirling mill- 
wheels. "- When I have stood alone on the ridge 
of the mountain," says Bechstein, '' after having 
sought the chasm in vain, I have heard a mighty 
rush, like that of falling water, beneath my feet, and 
after scrambling down the -scarp, have found myself 
— how, I never knew — in front of the cave." (" Sa- 
genschatz des Thiiringes-Iandes," 1835.) 



2o8 The Mountain of Venus, 

In ancient days, according to the Thuringian 
Chronicles, bitter cries and long-drawn moans were 
heard issuing from this cavern ; and at night, wild 
shrieks and the burst of diabolical laughter would 
ring from it over the vale, and fill the inhabitants 
with terror. It was supposed that this hole gave 
admittance to Purgatory ; and the popular but faulty 
derivation of Horsel was Hore^ die Seele — Hark, the 
Souls !* 

But another popular belief respecting this moun- 
tain was, that in it Venus, the pagan Goddess of 
Love, held her court, in all the pomp and revelry 
of heathendom ; and there were not a few who de- . 
clared that they had seen fair forms of female beauty 
beckoning them from the mouth of the chasm, and 
that they had heard dulcet strains of music well, 
up from the abyss above the thunder of the falling, 
unseen torrent. Charmed by the music, and allured 
by the spectral forms, various individuals had en- 
tered the cave, and none had returned, except the 
Tanhauser, of whom more anon. Still does the 
Horselberg go by the name of the Venusberg, a 
name frequently used in the middle ages, but with- 
out its locality being defined. 



The Mountain of Venus. 209 

" In 1398, at midday, there appeared suddenly 
three great fires in the air, which presently ran 
together into one globe of flame, parted again, and 
finally sank into the Horselberg," says the Thurin- 
gian Chronicle. 

And now for the story of Tanhauser. 

A French knight was riding over the beauteouo 
meadows in the Horsel vale on his way to Wart- 
burg, where the Landgrave Hermann was holding 
a gathering of minstrels, who were to contend in 
song for a prize. 

Tanhauser was a famous minnesinger, and all 
his lays were of love and of women, for his heart 
was full of passion, and that not of the purest and 
noblest description. 

It was towards dusk that he passed the cliff in 
which is the Horselloch, and as he rode by, he saw 
a white glimmering figure of matchless beauty stand- 
ing before him, and beckoning him to her. He knew 
her at once, by her attributes and by her superhuman 
perfection, to be none other than Venus. As she 
spake to him, the sweetest strains of music floated 
in the air, a soft roseate light glowed around her, 
and nymphs of exquisite loveliness scattered roses 



2IO The Mountain of Venus. 

at her feet. A thrill of passion ran through the 
veins of the minnesinger ; and, leaving his horse, 
he followed the apparition. It led him up the 
mountain to the cave, and as it went 3owers 
bloomed upon the soil, and a radiant track was 
left for Tanhauser to follow. He entered the cavern, 
and descended to the palace of Venus in the heart 
of the mountain. 

Seven years of revelry and debauch were passed, 
and the minstrel's heart began to feel a strange 
void. The beauty, the magnificence, the variety of 
• the scenes in the pagan goddess's home, and all 
its heathenish pleasures, palled upon him, and he 
yearned for the pure fresh breezes of earth, one 
look up at the dark night sky spangled with stars, 
one glimpse of simple moxmtain-flowers, one tinkle 
of sheep-bells. At the same time his conscience 
began to reproach him, and he longed to make his 
peace w^ith God. In vain did he entreat Venus to 
permit him to depart, and it was only when, in the 
bitterness of his grief, he called upon the Virgin- 
Mother, that a rift in the mountain-side appeared 
to him, and he stood again above ground. 

How sweet was the morning air, balmy with the 



The Mountain of Venus. 21 1 

scent of hay, as it rolled up the mountain to him, 
and fanned his haggard cheek ! How delightful to 
him was the cushion of moss and scanty grass after 
the downy couches of the palace of revelry below ! 
He plucked the little heather-bells, and held them 
before him ; the tears rolled from his eyes, and 
moistened his thin and wasted hands. He looked 
up at the soft blue sky and the newly-risen sun, 
and his heart overflowed. What were the golden, 
jewel-incrusted, lamp-lit vaults beneath to that pure 
dome of God's building ! 

The chime of a village church struck sweetly on 
his ear, satiated with Bacchanalian songs ; and he 
hurried down the mountain to the church which 
called him. There he made his confession ; but the 
priest, horror-struck at his recital, dared not give 
him absolution, but passed him on to another. And 
so he went from one to another, till at last he was 
referred to the Pope himself. To the Pope he went. 
Urban IV. then occupied the chair of St. Peter. 
To him Tanhauser related the sickening story of 
his guilt, and prayed for absolution. Urban was a 
hard and stern man, and shocked at the immensity 
of the sin, he thrust the penitent indignantly from 



212 The Mountain of Ve7tus. 

him, exclaiming, " Guilt such as thine can never, 
never be remitted. Sooner shall this staff in my 
hand grow green and blossom, than that God should 
pardon thee ! " 

Then Tanhauser, full of despair, and with his* 
soul darkened, went away, and returned to the only 
asylum open to him, the Venusberg. But lo ! three 
days after he had gone. Urban" discovered that his 
pastoral staff had put forth buds, and had burst 
into flower. Then he sent messengers after Tan- 
hauser, and they reached the Horsel vale to hear 
that a wayworn man, with haggard brow and bowed 
head, had just entered the Horsdloch. Since then 
Tanhauser has not been seen. 

Such is the sad yet beautiful story of Tanhauser. 
It is a very ancient myth Christianized, a wide-spread 
tradition localized. Originally heathen, it has been 
transformed, and has acquired new beauty by an 
infusion of Christianity. Scattered over Europe, it 
exists in various forms, but in none so graceful as 
that attached to the Horselberg. There are, how- 
ever, other Venusbergs in Germany ; as, for instance, 
in Swabia, near Waldsee ; another near Ufhausen, 
at no great distance from Freiburg (the same story 



The Mountain of Venus. 213 

is told of this Venusberg as of the Horselberg) ; in 
Saxony there is a Venusberg not far from Wolken- 
stein. Paracelsus speaks of a Venusberg in Italy, 
referring to that in which ^neas Sylvius (Ep. 16) 
says Venus or a Sibyl resides, occupying a cavern, 
and assuming once a w^eek the form of a serpent. 
Geiler v. Keysersperg, a quaint old preacher of the 
fifteenth century, speaks of the witches assembling 
on the Venusberg. 

The story, either in prose or verse, has often been 
printed. Some of the earliest editions are the fol- 
lowing : — 

^'- Das Lied von dem Danhewser." Niirnberg, 
without date; the same, NCirnberg, 1515. — "Das 
Lyedt V. d. Thanheuser." Leyptzk, 1520. — "Das 
Lied V. d. Danheuser," reprinted by Bechstein, 1835. 
— "Das Lied vom edlen Tanheuser, Mons Veneris." 
Frankfort, 1614 ; Leipzig, 1668. — " Twe lede volgen 
Dat erste vam Danhiisser." Without date. — " Van 
heer Danielken." Tantwerpen, 1544. — A Danish 
version in " Nyerup, Danske Viser," No. VIII. 

Let us now see some of the forms which this 
remarkable myth assumed in other countries. Every 
popular tale has its root, a root which may be 



214 The Mountain of Venus, 

traced among different countries, and though the 
accidents of the story may vary, yet the substance 
remains unaltered. It has been said that the com- 
mon people never invent new story-radicals any more 
than we invent new word-roots ; and this is perfectly 
true. The same story-root remains, but it is varied 
according to the temperament of the narrator or the 
exigencies of localization. The story '^oot of the 
Venusberg is this : — 

The underground folk seek union with human 
beings. 

«. A man is enticed into their abode, where he 
unites with a woman of the underground 
race. 

(?. He desires to revisit the earth, and escapes. 

7. He returns again to the region below. 

Now, there is scarcely a collection of folk-lore 
which does not contain a story founded on this 
root. It appears in every branch of the Aryan 
family, and examples might be quoted from Modern 
Greek, Albanian, Neapolitan^ French, German, 
Danish, Norwegian and Swedish, Icelandic, Scotch, 
Welsh, and other collections of popular tales. I 
have only space to mention some. 



The MouJitain of Venus, " 215 

There is a Norse Thattr of a certain Helgi Thorir's 
son, which is, in its present form, a production of 
the fourteenth century. Helgi and his brother Thor- 
stein went a cruise to Finnmark, or Lapland. They 
reached a ness, and found the land covered with 
forest. 'Helgi explored this forest, and lighted sud- 
denly on a party of red-dressed women riding upon 
red horses. These ladies were beautiful and of troll 
race. One surpassed the others in beauty, and she 
was their mistiness. They erected a tent and pre- 
pared a feast. Helgi observed that all their vessels 
were of silver and gold. The lady, who named her- 
self Ingibjorg, advanced towards the Norseman, and 
invited him to live with her. He feasted and lived 
with the trolls for three days, and then returned to 
his ship, bringing with him two chests of silver 
and gold, which Ingibjorg had given him. He had 
been forbidden to mention where he had been and 
with whom ; so he told no* one whence he had ob- 
tained the chests. The ships sailed, and he returned 
home. 

One winter's night Helgi was fetched away from 
home, in the midst of a furious storm, by two mys- 
terious horsemen, and no one was able to ascertain 



2i6 The Mountain of Venus. 

for many years what had become of him, till the 
prayers of the king, Olaf, obtained his release, and 
then he was restored to his father and brother, but 
he was thenceforth blind. All the time of -his ab- 
sence he had been with the red-vested lady in her 
mysterious abode of Gloesisvellir. 

The Scotch story of Thomas of Ercildoune is the 
same story. Thomas met with a strange lady, of 
elfin race, beneath Eildon Tree, who led him into 
the underground land, where he remained with her 
for seven years. He then returned to earth, still, 
however, remaining bound to come to his royal mis- 
tress whenever she should summon him. Accord- 
ingly, while Thomas was making merry with his 
friends in the Tower of Ercildoune, a person came 
running in, and told, with marks of fear and aston- 
ishment, that a hart and a hind had left the neigh- 
boring forest, and were parading the street of the 
village. Thomas instantly arose, left his house, and 
followed the animals into the forest, from which he 
never returned. According to popular belief, he 
still "drees his weird" in Fairy Land, and is one 
day expected to revisit earth. (Scott, "Minstrelsy 
of the Scottish Border.") Compare with this the 
ancient ballad of Tamlane. 



The Mountain of Venus. 217 

Debes relates that " it happened a good while 
since, when the burghers of Bergen had the com- 
merce of the Faroe Isles, that there was a man in 
Serraade, called Jonas Soideman, who was kept by 
the spirits in a mountain during the space of seven 
years, and at length came out, but lived afterwards 
in great distress and fear, lest they should again take 
him away ; wherefore people were obliged to watch 
him in the night." The same author mentions 
another young man who had been carried away, 
and after his return was removed a second time, 
upon the eve of his marriage. 

Gervase of Tilbury says that " in Catalonia there 
is a lofty mountain, named Cavagum, at the foot 
of which runs a river with golden sands, in the 
vicinity of which there are likewise silver mines. 
This mountain is steep, and almost inaccessible. 
On its top, which is always covered with ice and 
snow, is a black and bottomless lake, into which if 
a stone be cast, a tempest, suddenly arises; and near 
this lake is the portal of the palace of demons." He 
then tells how a young damsel was spirited in 
there, and spent seven years with the mountain 
spirits. On her return to earth she was thin and 



2i8 The Mountain of Venus. 

withered, with wandering eyes, and ahnost bereft 
of understanding. 

A Swedish story is to this effect. A young man 
was on his way to his bride, when he was allured 
into a mountain by a beautiful elfin woman. With 
her he lived forty years, which passed as an hour ; 
on his return to earth all his old friends and rela- 
tions were dead, or had forgotten him, and finding 
no rest there, he returned to his mountain elf-land. 

In Pomerania, a laborer's son, Jacob Dietrich of 
Rambin, was enticed away in the same manner. 

There is a curious story told by Fordun in his 
" Scotichronicon," which has some interest in con- 
nection with the legend of the Tanhauser. He re- 
lates that in the year 1050, a youth of noble birth 
had been married in Rome, and during the nuptial 
feast, being engaged in a game of ball, he took oflf 
his wedding-ring, and placed it on the finger of a 
statue of Venus. When he wished to resume it, he 
found that the stony hand had become clinched, so 
that it was impossible to remove the ring. Thence- 
forth he w^as haunted by the Goddess Venus, who 
constantly whispered in his ear, " Embrace me ; I 
am Venus, whom you have wedded ; I will never 



The Mountain of Venus. 219 

restore your ring." However, by the assistance of 
a priest, she was at length forced to give it up to 
its rightful owner. 

The classic legend of Ulysses, held captive for 
eight years by the nymph Calypso in the Island of 
Ogygia, and again for one year by the enchantress 
Circe, contains the root of the same story of the 
Tanhauser. 

What may have been the significance of the pri- 
meval stoiy-radical it is impossible for us now to 
ascertain ; but the legend, as it shaped itself in the 
middle ages, is certainly indicative of the struggle 
between the new and the old faith. 

We see thinly veiled in Tanhauser the story of 
a man. Christian in name, but heathen at heart, 
allured by the attractions of paganism, which seems 
to satisfy his poetic instincts, and which gives full 
rein to his passions. But these excesses pall on him 
after a while, and the religion of sensuality leaves 
a great void in his breast. 

He turns to Christianity, and at first it seems to 

I promise all that he requires. But alas ! he is repelled 
by its ministers. On all sides he is met by practice 
iwidely at variance with profession. Pride, worldli- 



220 The Mountain of Venus. 

ness, want of sympathy exist among those who should 
be the foremost to guide, sustain, and receive him. 
All the warm springs which gushed up in his broken 
heart are choked, his softened spirit is hardened 
again, and he returns in despair to bury his sorrows 
and drov/n his anxieties in the debauchery of his 
former creed. 

A sad picture, but doubtless one very true. 



0t (Btox^t, 

A MORE interesting task for the comparative mythol- 
ogist can hardly be found, than the analysis of the 
legends attaching to this celebrated soldier-martyr; — 
interesting, because these legends contain almost unal- 
tered representative myths of the Semitic and Aryan 
peoples, and myths which may be traced with certainty 
to their respective roots. 

The popular traditions current relating to the Cappa- 
docian martyr are distinct in the East and the West, and 
are alike sacred myths of faded creeds, absorbed into 
the newer faith, and recolored. On dealing with these 
myths, we are necessarily drawn into the discussion as to 
whether such a person as St. George existed, and if he did 
exist, whether he were a Catholic or a heretic. Eusebius 
says (Eccl. Hist. B. viii. c. 5), ^* Immediately on the first 
promulgation of the edict (of Diocletian), a certain man 
of no mean origin, but highly esteemed for his temporal 
dignities, as soon as the decree was published against the 



222 St. George. 

Churches in Nicomedia, stimulated by a divine zeal, and 
excited by an ardent faith, took it as it was openly placed 
and posted up for public inspection, and tore it to pieces 
as a most profane and wicked act. This, too, was done 
when two of the Caesars were in the city, the first of whom 
was the eldest and chief of all, and the other held the 
fourth grade of the imperial dignity after him. But this 
man, as the first that was distinguished there in this man- 
ner, after enduring what was likely to follow an act so 
daring, preserved his mind calm and serene until the 
moment when his spirit fled." 

' This martyr, whose name Eusebius does not give, has 
been generally supposed to be St. George, and if so, this 
is nearly all we know authentic concerning him. But 
popular as a saint he unquestionably was, from a very 
early age. He is believed to have suffered at Nicomedia 
in 303, and his worship was soon extended through 
Phoenicia, Palestine, and the whole East. In the seventh 
century he had two Churches in Rome; in Gaul he was 
honored in the fifth century. In an article contributed to 
the Transactions of the Royal Society of Literature,* Mr. 
Hogg speaks of a Greek inscription copied from a very 
ancient church, originally a heathen temple at Ezra, in 

* Second Series, vol. vii. pt. i. 



6*/. George. 223 

Syria, dated a.d. 346, in which St. George is spoken of 
as a holy martyr. This is important testimony, as at this 
very time was living the other George, the Alexandrian 
bishop (d. 362), with whom the Saint is sometimes con- 
founded. 

The earliest acts quoted by the Bollandists, are in 
Greek, and belong to the sixth century ; they are fabu- 
lous. Beside these, are some Latin acts, said to have 
been composed by Pasikras, the servant of the martyr, 
which belonged to the eighth century, and which are 
certainly translations of an earher work than the Greek 
acts printed by the Bollandists. These are also apocry- 
phal. Consequently we know of St. George little, except 
that there was such a martyr, that he was a native of 
Lydda, but brought up in Cappadocia, that he entered 
the Roman army and suffered a cruel death for Christ. 
That his death was one of great cruelty, is rendered 
probable by the manner in which his biographers dilate 
on his tortures, all agreeing to represent them as exces- 
sive. 

The first to question the reverence shown for St. 
George was Calvin, who says " Nil eos Christo reliquum 
facere qui pro nihilo ducunt ejus intercessionem, nisi 
accedant Georgius aut Hippolitus, aut similes larvae." 



224 S^, Geo7'ge. 

Dr. Reynolds follows in the wake, and identifies the 
martyr with the Arian Bishop of Alexandria. This man 
had been born in a fuller's mill at Epiphania, in Cilicia. 
He is first heard of as purveyor of provisions for the 
army at Constantinople, where he assumed the profession 
of Arianism ; from thence, having been detected in cer- 
tain frauds, he was obliged to fly, and take refuge in 
Cappadocia. His Arian friends obtained his pardon, by 
payment of a fine, and he was sent to Alexandria, where 
his party elected him Bishop, in opposition to St. Athan- 
asius, immediately after the death of the Arian prelate, 
Gregory. There, associatmg with himself Dracontius, 
master of the mint, and the Count Diodorus, he tyran- 
nized alike over Catholics and heathens, till the latter rose 
against him and put him to death. Dr. Heylin levelled a 
lance in honor of the Patron of England ; * but his his- 
torical character was again questioned, in 1753, by Dr. 
John Pettingal in a work on the original of the equestrian 
statue of St. George ; and he was answered by Dr. Samuel 
Pegge, in 1777, in a paper read before the Society of 
Antiquaries. Gibbon, without much investigation into the 
ground of the charge, assumes the identity of the Saint 

* Historic of that Most famous Saint and Soldier of Christ 
Jesus, St George of Cappadocia, 1633. 



5/. George. 225 

and the Arian prelate. '^ The odious stranger, disguising 
every circumstance of time and place, assumed the mask 
of a martyr, a saint, and a Christian hero ; and the 
infamous George of Cappadocia has been transformed 
into the renowned St. George of England, the patron of 
arms, of chivalry, and of the Garter." * 

The great improbability of such a transformation would 
lead one to question the assertion, even if on no other 
ground. Arians and Catholics were too bitterly hostile, 
for it to be possible that a partisan of the former, and a 
persecutor, should be accepted as a saint by the latter. 
The writings of St. Athanasius were sufficiently known to 
the Mediaevals to save them from falling into such an 
error, and St. Athanasius paints his antagonist in no 
charming colors. I am disposed to believe that there 
really was such a person as St. George, that he was a 
martyr to the Catholic faith, and that the very uncertainty 
which existed regarding him, tended to give the com- 
posers of his biography the opportunity of attaching to 
him popular heathen myths, which had been floating un- 
adopted by any Christian hero. The number of warrior 
saints was not so very great ; Sebastian's history was fixed, 
so were those of Maurice and Gereon, but George was 

* Gibbon's Decline and Fall, chap, xxiii. 
IS 



226 St. George, 

unprovided with a history. The deficiency was soon 
supplied. We have a similar instance in the story of 
St. Hippolitus. The ancient tale of the son of Theseus 
torn by horses was deliberately transferred to a Christian 
of the same name. 

The substance of the Greek acts is to this effect : — 
George was born of Christian parents in Cappadocia. 
His father suffered a martyr's death, and the mother with 
her child took refuge in Palestine. He early entered the 
army, and behaved with great courage and endurance. 
At the age of twenty he was bereaved of his mother, and 
by her death came in for a large fortune. He then went 
to the court of Diocletian, where he hoped to find ad- 
vancement. On the breaking out of the persecution, he 
distributed his money among the poor, and declared him- 
self, before the Emperor, to be a Christian. Having been 
ordered to sacrifice, he refused, and was condemned to 
death. The first day, he was thrust with spears to prison, 
one of the spears snapped like straw when it touched 
him. He was then fastened by the feet and hands to 
posts, and a heavy stone was laid upon his breast. 

The second day, he was bound to a wheel set with 
blades of knives and swords. Diocletian believed him 
to be dead ; but an angel appearing, George courteously 



vS/. George. 227 

saluted him in military fashion, whereby the persecutor 
ascertained that the Saint was still living. On removing 
him from the wheel, it was discovered that all his wounds 
were healed. George was then cast into a pit of quick- 
lime, which, however, did not cause his death. On the 
next day but one, the Emperor sent to have his limbs 
broken, and he was discovered on his knees perfectly 
whole. 

He was next made to run in red-hot iron shoes. The 
following night and day he spent in prayer, and on the 
sixth day he appeared before Diocletian walking and 
unhurt. He was then scourged with thongs of hide till 
his flesh came off his back, but was well next day. 

On the seventh day he drank two cups, whereof the 
one was prepared to make him mad, the other to poison 
him, without experiencing any ill effects. He then per- 
formed some miracles, raised a dead man to Hfe, and 
restored to life an ox which had been killed ; — miracles 
which resulted in numerous conversions. 

That night George dreamed that the Saviour laid a 
golden crown on his head, and bade him prepare for 
Paradise. St. George at once called to him the servant 
who wrote these memoirs (oWt? /cat ra v-ko rbv ayiov 
vTrofivT^fJiara crvv aKptfiua iraarj a-vvira^^v), and commanded 



228 St. George, 

him, after his death, to take his body and will to Palestine. 
On the eighth day, the saint, by the sign of the cross, 
forced the devil inhabiting the statue of Apollo to declare 
that he was a fallen angel ; then all the statues of the gods 
fell before him. 

This miracle converted the Empress Alexandra; and 
Diocletian was so exasperated against the truth, that he 
condemned her to instant death. George was then exe- 
cuted. The day of his martyrdom was the 23rd of April. 

The Latin acts may be summed up as follows ; they, as 
already stated, are a translation from a Greek original : — 

The devil urges Dacian, Emperor of the Persians, king 
of the four quarters of heaven, having dominion over 
seventy-two kings, to persecute the Church. At this time 
lived George of Cappadocia, a native of Melitena. Me- 
litena is also the scene of his martyrdom. Here he lived 
with a holy widow. He is subjected to numerous tortures, 
such as the rack, iron pincers, fire, a sword-spiked wheel, 
shoes nailed to his feet ; he is put into an iron box set 
within with sharp nails, and flung down a precipice ; he 
is beaten with sledge-hammers, a pillar is laid on him, a 
heavy stone dashed on to his head ; he is stretched on a 
red-hot iron bed, melted lead is poured over him ; he is 
cast into a well, transfixed with forty long nails, shut into 



St George. 229 

a brazen bull over a fire, and cast into a well with a stone 
round his neck. Each time he returns from a torment, 
he is restored to former vigor. His tortures continue 
through seven years. His constancy and miracles are 
the means of converting 40,900 men, and the Empress 
Alexandra. Dacian then orders the execution of George 
and his queen ; and as they die, a whirlwind of fire carries 
off the persecutor. 

These two acts are the source of all later Greek 
legends. 

Papenbroech prints legends by Simeon Metaphrastes 
(d. 904) , Andreas Hierosoly mites, and Gregorios Kyprios 
(d. 1289). 

Reinbot von Dorn (cent, xiii.), or the French author 
from whom he translated the life of St. George, thought 
fit to reduce the extravagance of the original to moderate 
proportions, the seventy-two kings were reduced to seven, 
the countless tortures to eight ; George is bound, and has 
a weight laid on him, is beaten with sticks, starved, put 
on a wheel covered with blades, quartered and thrown 
into a pond, rolled down a hill in a brazen bull, his nails 
transfixed with poisoned thorns, and he is then executed 
with the sword. 

Jacques de Voragine says that he was first attached to 



230 SL George, 

a cross, and torn with iron hooks till his bowels protruded, 
and that then he was washed with salt water. Next day 
he was given poison to drink without its affecting him. 
Then George was fastened to a wheel covered with 
razors and knives, but the wheel snapped. He was next 
cast into a caldron of molten lead. George was unin- 
jured by the bath. Then, at his prayer, lightning fell 
and destroyed all the idols, whilst the earth, opening, 
swallowed up the priests. At the sight of this, the wife 
of Dacian, whom Jacques de Voragine makes proconsul 
under Diocletian, is converted, and she and George are 
decapitated. Thereupon lightning strikes Dacian and his 
ministers. 

St. George, then, according to the Oriental Christian 
story, suffers at least seven martyrdoms, and revives after 
each, the last excepted. 

The Mussulmans revere him equally with the Christians, 
and tell a tale concerning him having a strong affinity to 
that recorded in the acts. Gherghis, or El Khoudi, as 
he is called by them, lived at the sam.e tjme as the 
Prophet. He was sent by God to the king of El Maugil 
with the command that he should accept the faith. This 
the king refused to do, and ordered the execution of 
Gherghis. The saint was slain, but God revived him. 



SL George, 231 

and sent him to the king again. A second time was he 
slain, and again did God restore him to life. A third 
time did he preach his mission. Then the persecutor 
had him burned, and his ashes scattered in the Tigris. 
But God restored him to life once more, and destroyed 
the king and all his subjects.* The Greek historian, John 
Kantakuzenos (d. 1380) remarks, that in his time there 
were several shrines erected to the memory of George, at 
which the Mohammedans paid their devotions ; and the 
traveller Burckhardt relates, that "the Turks pay great 
veneration to St. George ; " Dean Stanley moreover no- 
ticed a Mussulman chapel on the sea-shore near Sara- 
fend, the ancient Sarepta, dedicated to El Khouder, in 
which " there is no tomb inside, only hangings before a 
recess. This variation from the usual type of Mussulman 
sepulchres was, as we were told by peasants on the spot, 
because El Khouder is not yet dead, but flies round and 
round the world, and these chapels are built wherever he 
has appeared." f Ibn Wahshiya al Kasdani was the trans- 
lator of the Book of Nabathaean Agriculture. " Towards 
the year 900 of our era, a descendant of those ancient 
Babylonian families who had fled to the marshes of Wasith 

* Mas'udi, libers, von Sprenger, vol. i. p. 120. 
t Sinai and Palestine, p. 274. 



232 SL George. 

and of Bassora, where their posterity still dwell, was struck 
with profound admiration for the works of his ancestors, 
whose language he understood, and probably spoke. Ibn 
Wahshiya al Kasdani, or the Chaldaean,- was a Mussulman, 
but Islamism only dated in his family from the time of 
his great-grandfather ; he hated the Arabs, and cherished 
the same feeling of national jealousy towards them as the 
Persians also entertained against their conquerors. A 
piece of good fortune threw into his hands a large collec- 
tion of Nabathaean writings, which had been rescued from 
Moslem fanaticism. The zealous Chaldaean devoted his 
lif^ to their translation, and thus created a Nabathaeo- 
Arabic library, of which three complete works, to say 
nothing of the fragments of a fourth, have descended to 
our days." * One of these is the Book of Nabathaean 
Agriculture, wTitten by Kuthami the Babylonian. In it 
we find the following remarkable passage : " The contem- 
poraries of Yanbushadh assert that all the seka'in of the 
gods. and all the images lamented over Yanbushadh after 
his death, just as all the angels and seka'in lamented over 
Tammuzi. The images (of the gods), they say, congre- 
gated from all parts of the world to the temple in Baby- 

* Ernest Renan, Essay on the Age and Antiquity of the Book of 
Nabathaean Agriculture, London, 1862, p. 5. 



SL George. , 233 

Ion, and betook themselves to the temple of the Sun, to 
the great golden image that is suspended between heaven 
and earth. The Sun image stood/ they say, in the midst 
of the temple, surrounded by all the images of the world. 
Next to it stood the images of the Sun in all countries ; 
then those of the Moon ; next those of Mars ; after them, 
the images of Mercury ; then those of Jupiter ; after them, 
those of Venus ; and last of all, of Saturn. Thereupon 
the image of the Sun began to bewail Tammuzi, and the 
idols to weep ; and the image of the Sun uttered a lament 
over Tammuz and narrated his history, whilst the idols all 
wept from the setting of the sun till its rising at the end 
of that night. Then the idols flew away, returning to 
their own countries. They say that the eyes of the idol 
of Tehama (in South Arabia), called the eagle, are per- 
petually flowing with tears, and will so continue, from the 
night wherein it lamented over Tammuz along with the 
image of the Sun, because of the peculiar share that it 
had in the story of Tammuz. This idol, called Nesr, they 
say, is the one that inspired the Arabs with the gift of 
divination, so that they can tell what has not yet come to 
pass, and can explain dreams before the dreamers state 
what they are. They (the contemporaries of Yanbiis- 
hadh) tell that the idols in the land of Babel bewailed 



234 ^5*/. George, 

Yanbushadh singly in all their temples a whole night long 
till morning. During this night there was a great flood j 
of rain, with violent thunder and lightning, as also a furi- 
ous earthquake (in the district) from the borders of the 
mountain ridge of Holwan to the banks of the Tigris 
near the city Nebarwaja, on the eastern bank of that 
river. The idols, they say, returned during this flood to 
their places, because they had been a little shaken. This 
flood was brought by the idols as a judgment upon the 
people of the land of Babel for having abandoned the 
dead body of Yanbushadh, as it lay on the bare ground 
in the desert of Shamas, so that the flood carried his dead 
body to the Wadi el-A'hfar, and then swept it from this 
wadi into the sea. Then there was drought and pestilence 
in the land of Babel for three months, so that the living 
were not sufficient to bury the dead. These tales (of 
Tammuz and Yanbilshadh) have been collected and are 
read in the temples" after prayers, and the people 
weep and lament much thereupon. When I myself am 
present with the people in the temple, at the feast of 
Tammuz, which is in the month called after him, and 
they read his story and weep, I weep along with them 
always, out of friendly feeling towards them, and because 
I compassionate their weeping, not that I believe what 



St. George, 235 

they relate of him. But I believe in the story of Yan- 
biishadh, and when they read it and weep, I weep along 
with them, very differently from my weeping over Tam- 
miizi. The reason is this, that the time of Yanbiishadh 
is nearer to our own than the time of Tammuz, and his 
story is, therefore, more certain and worthy of belief. It 
is possible that some portions of the story of Tammiiz 
may be true, but I have my doubts concerning other 
parts of it, owing to the distance of his time from 
ours.'* 

Thus writes Kuthami the Babylonian, and his translator 
adds : — 

'' Says Abii Bekr A'hmed ibn Wa'hshiya. This month 
is called Tammuz, according to what the Nabathseans 
say, as I have found it in their books, and is named 
after a man of whom a strange long story is told, and who 
was put to death, they relate, several times in succession 
in a most cruel manner. Each of their months is named 
after some excellent and learned man, who was one, in 
ancient times, of those Nabathaeans that inhabited the 
land of Babel before the Chaldaeans. This Tammuz was 
not one of the Chaldaeans, nor of the Canaanites, nor of 
the Hebrews, nor of the Assyrians, but of the primaeval 
lanbanis. ... All the Ssabians of our time, down to our 



236 vS/. George. 

own day, wail and weep over Tammuz in the month of 
that name, on the occasion of a festival in his honor, and 
make great lamentation over him ; especially the women, 
who all arise, both here (at Bagdad) and at 'Harran, and 
wail and weep over Tammiiz. They tell a long and silly 
story about him ; but, as I have clearly ascertained, not 
one of either sect has any certain information regarding 
Tammuz, or the reason of their lamenting over him. 
However, after I had translated this book, I found in the 
course of my reading the statement that Tammiiz was a 
man concerning whom there was a legend, and that he 
had been put to death in a shameful manner. That was 
all ; not another word about him. They knew nothing 
more about him than to say, 'We found our ancestors 
weeping and wailing over him in this way at this feast that 
is called after him Tammiizi.* My own opinion is, that 
this festival which they hold in commemoration of Tam- 
miiz is an ancient one, and has maintained itself till now, 
whilst the story connected with him has been forgotten, 
owing to the remoteness of his age, so that no one of 
these Ssabians at the present day knows what his story 
was, nor why they lament over him." Ibn Wa'hshiya 
then goes on to speak of a festival celebrated by the 
Christians towards the end of the month Nisan (April) in 



St. George. 237 

honor of St. George, who is said to have been several 
times put to death by a king to whom he had gone to 
preach Christianity, and each time he was restored to life 
again, but at the last died. Then Ibn Wa'hshiya remarks 
that what is related of the blessed George is the same as 
that told of Tammuz, whose festival is celebrated in the 
month Tammuz ; and he adds that besides what he found 
regarding Tammuz in the " Agriculture," he lit on another 
Nabathsean book, in which was related in full the legend 
of Tammiiz ; — " how he summoned a king to worship 
the seven (planets) and the twelve (signs), and how the 
king put him to death several times in a cruel manner, 
Tammuz coming to life again after each time, until at last 
he died ; and behold ! it was identical with the legend 
of St. George that is current among the Christians." * 

Mohammed en Medun in his Fihrist-el-U'liim, says, 
" Tammuz (July) . In the middle of this month is the 
Feast El Bugat, that is, of the weeping women, which 
Feast is identical with that Feast of Ta-uz, which is cele- 
brated in honor of the god Ta-uz. The women bewail 

* Chwolson : liber Tammuz. St. Petersburg, i860, pp. 41-56. The 
translation is for the most part from the Christian Remembrancer, 
No. cxii,, an article on Tammuz, with the conclusions of which I 
cannot altogether agree. My own conviction as to Tammuz will be 
seen in the sequel. 



238 St, George. 

him, because his Lord had him so cruelly martyred, his 
bones being ground in a mill, and scattered to the 
winds." * 

We have then the Eastern myth of St. George identified 
with that of Tammuz, by one who is impartial. What 
that myth of Tammuz was in its entirety we cannot say, 
but we have sufficient evidence in the statement of Ibn 
Wa'hshiya to conclude that the worship of St. George and 
its popularity in the East is mainly due to the fact of his 
being a Christianized Tammuz. 

Professor Chwolson insists on Tammuz having been a 
man, deified and worshipped ; and the review below 
referred to confirms this theory. I believe this to be 
entirely erroneous. Tammuz stands to Chaldee myth- 
ology in precisely the same relation that the Ribhavas 
do to that of the Vedas. A French orientalist, M. Neve, 
wrote a learned work in 1847, on these ancient Indian 
deities, to prove that they were deified sages. But the 
careful study of the Vedic hymns to the Ribhus lead to 
an entirely opposite conclusion. They are the Summer 
breezes deified, which, in that they waft the smoke of the 
sacrifices to heaven, are addressed as assisting at the 
sacred offerings; and in a later age, when their real 

* Chwolson ; Die Ssabier, ii. 27. 



5/. George. 239 

signification was lost, they were anthropomorphized into 
a sacred caste of priests. A similar process has, I believe, 
taken place with Tammuz, who was the sun, regarded as 
a God and hero, dying at the close of each year, and 
reviving with the new one. In Kuthami's age the old 
deity was apparently misappreciated, and had suffered, 
in consequence, a reincarnation in Yanbiishadh, of whom 
a similar story was told, and who received similar worship, 
because he was in fact one with Tammuz. Almost ex- 
actly the same legend is related by the Jews of Abraham, 
who, they say, was cruelly tortured by Nimrod, and mirac- 
ulously preserved by God.* 

The Phoenician Adonis was identical with Tammuz. 
St. Jerome in the Vulgate rendered the passage in Ezekiel 
(viii. 14), " He brought me to the door of the gate of the 
Lord's house, which was towards the north ; and behold, 
there sat women weeping for Tammuz," by ecce mulieres 
sedentes plangentes Adonidem ; and in his commentary on 
the passage says, ^^Whom we have interpreted Adonis, 
both the Hebrew and Syriac languages call Thamuz . . . 
and they call the month June by that name." He informs 
us also of a very important fact, that the solstice was the 

* Leben Abrahams nach Ausfassung der Juclischen Sage, v. Dr. 
B. Beer, Leipzig, 1859. 



240 SL George, 

time when Tammuz was believed to have died, though 
the wailing for him took place in June. Consequently 
Tammuz's martyrdom took place at the end of December. 
Cyril of Alexandria also tells us of the identity existing 
between Adonis and Tammiiz (in Isaiah, chap, xviii.). 

The name Adonis is purely Semitic, and signifies the 
Lord. His worship was introduced to the Greeks by the 
Phoenicians through Crete. 

Adonis is identified with the Sun in one of the Orphic 
hymns : " Thou shining and vanishing in the beauteous 
circle of the Horae, dwelling at one time in gloomy 
Tartarus, at another elevating thyself to Olympus, giving 
ripeness to the fruits ! " * According to Theocritus, this 
rising and setting, this continual coursing, is accomplished 
in twelve months : " In twelve months the silent pacing 
Horae follow him from the nether world to that above, 
the dwelling of the Cyprian goddess, and then he declines 
again to Acheron.'' t The cause of these wanderings, 
according to the fable, was that two goddesses loved 
Adonis, Aphrodite, or more properly Astarte, and Per- 
sephone. Aphrodite, the Syrian Baalti, loved him so ten- 
derly that the jealousy of Ares was aroused, and he sent 

* Orph. Hymn, Iv. 5, and 10, ii. 
t Theocrit. Id. xv, 103, 104, 136. 



Sit. George, 241 

a wild boar to gore him in the chase. When Adonis 
descended to the realm of darkness, Persephone was 
inflamed with passion for the comely youth. Conse- 
quently a strife arose between her and Aphrodite, which 
should possess him. The quarrel was settled by Zeus 
dividing the year into three portions, whereof one, from 
the summer solstice to the autumn equinox, was to belong 
to Adonis, the second was to be spent by him with 
Aphrodite, and the third with Persephone. But Adonis 
voluntarily, surrendered his portion to the goddess of 
beauty.* Others say, that Zeus decreed that he should 
spend six months in the heavens with Aphrodite, and the 
other six in the land of gloom with Persephone. f 

The worship of Adonis, who was the same as Baal, was 
general in Syria and Phoenicia. The devotion to Tam- 
muz, we are told, was popular from iVntioch to Elymais.J 
It penetrated into Greece from Crete. Biblos in Phoe- 
nicia was the main seat of this worship. 

Tammuz, or Adonis, was again identical with Osiris. 
This is stated by several ancient writers. § 

The myth relating to Osiris was very similar. The Egyp- 

* Cyrill. Alex, in Isa. ; Apollodor. lib. iii. c. 14. 

t Schol. in Theocrit. Id. iii. v. 48, and xv. v. 103. 

X Ammian. Marcell. xxii. 9. OElian, Hist, animal, xii. 33. 

§ Lucian. de dea Syria, n. 7. Steph. de Urb. v. 



242 St. George, 

tian sun-god was born at the summer solstice and died at 
the winter solstice, when processions went round the 
temple seeking him, seven times. Osiris in heaven was 
the beloved of Isis, in the land of darkness was embraced 
by Nepthys. 

Typhon, as the Greeks call Seth or Bes, a monster 
represented in swine or boar shape, attacked Osiris, and 
slaying him, cut him up, and cast him into the sea. This 
took place on the 1 7th of the month Athor. 

Then began the wailing for Osiris, which lasted four 
days ; this was followed by the seeking, and this again 
by the finding of the God. 

Under another form, the same myth, and its accom- 
panying ceremonies, prevailed in Egypt, just as at Baby- 
lon that of Tammiiz had its reflection in the more modern 
cultus of Yanbushadh. The soul of the deceased Osiris 
was supposed to be incarnate in Apis ; and, in process 
of mythologic degradation, the legend of Osiris passed 
over to Apis, and with it the significant ceremonial. 
Thus Herodotus tells us how that at Memphis the death 
of the sacred bull was a cause of general wailing, and its 
discovery one of exultation. When Cambyses was in 
Egypt, and the land groaned under foreign sway, no Apis 
appeared ; but when his two armies were destroyed, and 



vS/. George. 243 

he came to Memphis, Apis had appeared ; and he found 
the conquered people manifesting their joy in dances, 
and with feasting and gay raiment.* 

We have, it will be seen, among Phoenicians, Syrians, 
Egyptians, and Nabathaeans, all Semitic nations, peculiar 
myths, with symbolic ceremonies bearing such a close 
resemblance to one another, that we are constrained to 
acknowledge them as forms, slightly varied, of some 
primaeval myth. 

We find also among the Arabs, another Semitic nation, 
a myth identical with that of the Babylonian Tammilz, 
prevalent among them not long after their adoption of 
Islamism. How shall we account for this? My answer 
is, that the pre -Mohammedan Arabs had a worship very 
similar to that of Tammuz, Baal, Adonis, or Osiris, and 
that, on their conversion to the faith of the prophet, they 
retained the ancient legend, adapting it to El Koudir, 
whom they identified with St. George, because they found 
that the Christians had already adopted this course, and 
had fixed the ancient myth on the martyr of Nicomedia. 
In Babylonia it had already passed to Yanbiishadh ; and 
it was made to pass further to Gherghis, much as in 
Greece the story of Apollo and Python was transferred 
* Thalia, c. 27. 



244 ^^' George, 

to Perseus and the sea-monster, and, as we shall see 
presently, was adopted into Christian mythology, and 
attributed to the subject of this paper. And indeed the 
process was perhaps facilitated by the fact that one of the 
names of this solar god was Giggras ; he was so called 
after the pipes used in wailing for him. 

The circumstances of the death of Tammiiz vary m 
the different Semitic creeds. 

Let me place them briefly in apposition. 
Nabathaean myth. TSmmiiz. 

A great hero, and prophet; is cruelly put to death 
several times, but revives after each martyrdom. His 
death a subject of wailing. 
Phoenician myth. Adon or Baal. 

A beautiful deity, killed by the furious Boar god. Re- 
vived and sent to heaven. Divides his time between 
heaven and hell, subject of wailing, seekmg, and find- 
ing. 
Syrian myth. Baal. 

Identical with the Phoenician. 
Egyptian myth. Osiris. 

A glorious god and great hero, killed by the evil god. 
Passes half his time in heaven, and half in the nether 
world. Subject of wailing, seeking, and finding. 



S^. George, 245 

Arabian myth. El Khouder, original name Ta'uz. 
A prophet, killed by a wicked king several times and 
revived each time. 
Oriental Christian myth. St. George. 

A soldier, killed by a wicked king, undergoes numerous 
torments, but revives after each. On earth lives with 
a widow. Takes to the other world with him the 
queen. Wailing and seeking fall away, and the festi- 
val alone remains. 

From this tabular view of the legends it is, I think, 
impossible not to see that St. George, in his mythical 
character, is a Semitic god Christianized. In order to 
undergo the process of conversion, a few little arrange- 
ments were rendered necessary, to divest the story of its 
sensuous character, and purify it. Astarte or Aphrodite 
had to be got out of the way somehow. She was made 
into a pious widow, in whose house the youthful saint 
lodged. 

Then Persephone, the queen of Hades, had to be 
accounted for. She was turned into a martyr, Alex- 
andra ; and just as Persephone was the wife of the ruth- 
less monarch of the nether world, so was Alexandra 
represented as the queen of Diocletian or Datian, and 
accompanied George to the unseen world. Consequently 



246 St. George. 

in the land of light, George was with the widow ; in that 
of gloom, with Alexandra : just as Osiris spent his year 
between Isis and Nepthys, and Adonis between Aphrodite 
and Persephone. According to the ancient Christian 
legend, the body of George travelled from the place of 
his martyrdom to that of his nativity ; this resembles the 
journey of the body of Osiris, down the Nile, over the 
waves to Biblos, where Isis found him again. 

The influence of Persian mythology is also perceptible 
in the legend. El Nedim says that Tammuz was brayed 
in a mill ; this feature in his martyrdom is adopted from 
the Iranian tradition of Hom, the Indian Soma, or the 
divine drink of sacrifice, which was anthropomorphized, 
and the history of the composition of the liquor was 
transformed into the fable of the hero. The Hom was 
pounded in a mortar, and the juice was poured on the 
sacrificial flames, and thus carried up into heaven in fire ; 
in the legend of the demigod, Hom was a martyr who 
was cruelly bruised and broken in a mortar, but who 
revived, and ascended to the skies. In the tale of George 
there is another indication of the absorption into it of a 
foreign myth. George revives the dead cow of the peas- 
ant Glycerius ; the same story is told of Abbot William 
of Villiers, of St. Germanus, of St. Garmon, and of St. 



St. George. 247 

Mochua. Thor also brought to life goats which had been 
killed and eaten. The same is told in the Rigveda of the 
Ribhus : " O sons of Sudharvan, out of the hide have 
you made the cow to arise ; by your songs the old have 
you made young, and from one horse have you made 
another horse." * 

The numbers in the legend of the soldier-saint have 
a solar look about them. The torments of St. George 
last seven years, or, according to the Greek acts, seven 
days ; the tyrant reigns over the four quarters of heaven, 
and seven kings ; in the Nabathaean story, Tammuz 
preaches the worship of the seven planets, and the twelve 
signs of the Zodiac. Osiris is sought seven days. The 
seven winter months are features in all mythologies. 

The manner in which St. George dies repeatedly repre- 
sents the different ways in which the sun dies each day. 
The Greeks, and, indeed, most nations, regarded the 
close of day as the expiration of the solar deity, and 
framed myths to account for his decease. In Greek 
mythology the solar gods are ""many, and the stories of 
their deaths are distributed so as to provide each with his 
exit from the world ; but in Semitic mythology it is not 

* See my note in Appendix to " The Folklore of the N. Coun- 
1 ties of England," London, 1866, pp. 321-4. 



248 vS/. George, 

so, the sun-god is one, and all kinds of deaths are attrib- 
uted to him alone, or, if he suffers anthropomorphism, to 
his representative. 

Phaethon is a solar deity ; he falls into the western 
seas. Herakles is another ; he expires in flames, rending 
the poisoned garment given him by Dejanira. Phaethon's 
death represents the rapid descent of the sun in the west ; 
that of Herakles, the setting orb in a flaming western sky 
rending the fire-lined clouds, which wrap his body. The 
same blaze, wherein sank the sun, was also supposed to 
be a funeral pyre, on which lay Memnon ; and the clouds 
fleeting about it, some falling into the fire, and some 
scudding over the darkling sky, were the birds which 
escaped from the funeral pyre, Achilles, a humanized 
sun-god, was vulnerable in his heel, just as the Teutonic 
* Sigfried could only be wounded in his back : this repre- 
sents the sun as retiring from the heavens with his back 
turned, struck by the weapon of darkness, just as Ares, 
the blmd God, with his tusk slew Adonis, or sightless 
Hodr with his mistletoe shaft smote Baldur. 

In the St. George fable, we have the martyr, like Mem- 
non or Herakles, on the fire, and transfixed, like Achilles 
and Ajax; exposed in a brazen bull on a fire, that is, 
hung in the full rain-cloud over the western blaze ; cast 



S^. George, 249 

down a hill, like Phaethon ; plunged into boiling metal, 
a representation of the lurid vapors of the west. 

Having identified St. George or Tammuz with the sun, 
we shall have little difficulty in seeing that Aphrodite or 
Isis is the moon when visible, and Persephone or Nepthys 
the waned moon; Persephone is in fact no other than 
Aphrodite in the region of gloom, where, according to 
the decree of Zeus, she was to spend six months with 
Aidoneus, and six months in heaven. 

But it is time for us to turn to the Western myth, that 
of the fight of St. George with the dragon ; in this, again, 
we shall find sacred beHefs of antiquity reappearing in 
Christian form. 

The story of St. George and the dragon first presents 
itself in the Legenda Aurea of Jacques de Voragine. It 
was accepted by the unquestioning clerks and laity of the 
middle ages, so that it found its way into the office-books 
of the Church. 

O Georgi Martyr inclyte, 
Te decet laus et gloria, 
Predotatum militia ; 
Per quern puella regia, 
Existens in tristitia, 
Coram Dracone pessimo, 
Salvata est. Ex animo 
Te rogamus corde intimo, 



250 St. George. 

Ut cunctis cum fidelibus 
Coeli jungamur civibus 
Nostris ablatis sordibus : 
Et simul cum laetitia 
Tecum simus in gloria ; 
Nostraque reddant labia 
Laudes Christo cum gratia, 
Cui sit honos in secula. 



1 



Thus sang the clerks from the Sarum "Horae B. 
Mariae/' on St. George's day, till the reformation of the 
Missals and Breviaries by Pope Clement VIL, when the 
story of the dragon was cut out, and St. George was 
simply acknowledged as a martyr, reigning with Christ. 
His introit was from Ps. Ixiii. The Collect, " God, who 
makest us glad through the merits and intercession of 
blessed George the martyr, mercifully grant that we who 
ask through him Thy good things may obtain the gift of 
Thy grace. '* The Epistle, 2 Tim. ii. 8~j.i, and iii. 10-13 \ 
and the Gospel, St. John xv. 1-8. 

The legend, as told by Voragine, is this : ■ — 
George, a tribune, was born in Cappadocia, and came 
to Lybia, to the town called Silene, near which was a 
pond infested by a monster, which had many times driven 
back an armed host that had come to destroy him. He 
even approached the walls of the city, and with his ex- 
halations poisoned all who were near. To avoid such 



St. George, 251 

visits, he was furnished each day with two sheep, to 
satisfy his voracity. If these were not given, he so at- 
tacked the walls of the town, that his envenomed breath 
infected the air, and many of the inhabitants died. He 
was supplied with sheep, till they were exhausted, and it 
was impossible to procure the necessary number. Then 
the citizens held counsel, and it was decided that each 
day a man and a beast should be offered, so that at last 
they gave up their children, sons and daughters, and none 
were spared. The lot fell one day on the princess. The 
monarch, horror-struck, offered in exchange for her his 
gold, his silver, and half his realm, only desiring to save 
his daughter from this frightful death. But the people 
insisted on the sacrifice of the maiden, and all the poor 
father could obtain was a delay of eight days, in which 
to bewail the fate of the damsel. At the expiration of 
this time, the people returned to the palace, ^nd said, 
"Why do you sacrifice your subjects for your daughter? 
We are all dying before the breath of this monster ! '* 
The king felt that he must resolve on parting with his 
child. He covered her with royal clothes, embraced her, 
and said, " Alas ! dear daughter, I thought to have seen 
myself re-born in your offspring. I hoped to have in- 
vited princes to your wedding, to have adorned you with 



252 Si. George. 

royal garments, and accompanied you with flutes, tam- 
bourins, and all kinds of music ; but you are to be de-. 
voured by this monster ! Why did not I die before you? '* 

Then she fell at her father's feet and besought his 
blessing. He accorded it her, weeping, and he clasped 
her tenderly in his arms; then she went to the lake. 
George, who passed that way, saw her weeping, and 
asked the cause of her tears. She replied : — " Good 
youth ! quickly mount your horse and fly, lest you perish 
with me." But George said to her : — "Do not fear ; 
tell me what you await, and why all this multitude look 
on." She answered : — "I see that you have a great and 
noble heart ; yet, fly ! " ** I shall not go without knowing 
the cause," he replied. Then she explained all to him ; 
whereupon he exclaimed : — " Fear nothing ! in the name 
of Jesus Christ, I will assist you." " Brave knight ! " said 
she ; " do not seek to die with me ; enough that I should 
perish ; for you can neither assist nor deliver me, and you 
will only die with me." 

At this moment the monster rose above the surface 
of the water. And the virgin said, all trembling, " Fly, 
fly, sir knight ! " 

His only answer was the sign of the cross. Then he 
advanced to meet the monster, recommending himself 
to God. 



St, George, 253 

He brandished his lance with such force, that he 
transfixed it, and cast it to the ground. Then, addressing 
the princess, he bade her pass her girdle round it, and 
fear nothing. When this was done, the monster followed 
like a docile hound. When they had brought it into the 
town, the people fled before it; but George recalled 
them, bidding them put aside all fear, for the Lord had 
sent him to deliver them from the dragon. Then the 
king and all his people, twenty thousand men, without 
counting women and children, were baptized, and George 
smote off the head of the monster. 

Other versions of the story are to the effect that the 
princess was shut up in a castle, and that all within 
were perishing for want of water, which could only be 
obtained from a fountain at the base of a hill, and this 
was guarded by the "laidly worm," from which George 
delivered them. 

"The hero won his well-earn 'd place 

Amid the saints, in death's dread hour ; 
And still the peasant seeks his grace, 

And next to God, reveres his power. 
In many a church his form is seen 
With sword, and shield, and helmet sheen: 
Ye know him by his steed of pride, 
And by the dragon at his side." 

Chr. Schmid. 



254 ^^- George, 

The same story has attached itself to other saints and 
heroes of the middle ages, as St. Secundus of Asti, St. 
Victor, Gozo of Rhodes, Raimond of St. Sulpice, Struth 
von Winkelried, the Count Aymon, Moor of Moorhall, 
" who slew the dragon of Wantley," Conyers of Sockburn, 
and the Knight of Lambton, ^^ John that slew ye Worme." 
Ariosto adopted it into his Orlando Furioso, and made his 
hero deliver Angelica from Orca, in the true mythic style 
of George ; * and it appears again in the tale of Che- 
derles.f The cause of the legend attaching itself to our 
hero, was possibly a misunderstanding of an encomium, 
made in memory of St. George, by Metaphrastes, which 
concludes thus : " Licebat igitur videre astutissimum Dra- 
conem, adversus carnem et sanguinem gloriari solitum, 
elatumque, et sese efferentem, a jiivene uno illusum, et 
ita dispectum atque confusum, ut quid ageret non ha- 
beret." Another writer, summing up the acts of St. 
George, says : '' Secundo quod Draconem vicit qui sig- 
nificat Diabolum ; " and Hospinian, relating the sufferings 
of the martyr, affirms distinctly that his constancy was 
the occasion of the creation of the legend by Voragine.J 

* Orland. Fur. c. xi. 

t Noel : Diet, de la Fable ; art. Chederles. 

X Christian Remembrancer, vol. xlv. p. 320. 



St. George, 255 

If we look at the story of Perseus and Andromeda, 
we shall find that in all essential particulars it is the same 
as that of the Cappadocian Saint. 

Cassiope having boasted herself to be fairer than Hera, 
Poseidon sent a flood and a sea-monster to ravage the 
country belonging to her husband Cepheus. The oracle 
of Ammon having been consulted, it was ascertained that 
nothing would stop the resentment of the gods except the 
exposure of the king's daughter, Andromeda, on a rock, 
to be devoured by the monster. At the moment that the 
dragon approached the maiden, Perseus appeared, and 
learning her peril, engaged the monster and slew him. 

The scene of this conflict was near Joppa, where in the 
days of St. Jerome the bones of the huge rpptile were 
exhibited, and Josephus pretends to have seen there the 
chains which attached the princess to the rock.* It was 
at Berytus (Beyrut) that the fight of St. George with the 
dragon took place. 

Similar stories were prevalent in Greece. In the isle 
of Salamis, Cenchrius, a son of Poseidon, relieved the 
inhabitants from the scourge of a similar monster, who 
devastated the island. At Thespia, a dragon ravaged the 
country round the city ; Zeus ordered the inhabitants to 
* Hieron. Epist. 108. Joseph. Bell. Jud. iii. c. 7. 



256 St, George, 

give the monster their children by lot. One year it fell 
on Cleostratus. Menestratus determined to save him. 
He armed himself with a suit covered with hooks, and 
was devoured by the dragon, which perished in killing 
him. Pherecydes killed a great serpent in Caulonia, an 
adventure afterwards related of Pythagoras, with the scene 
shifted to Sybaris ; and Herakles, as is well known, slew 
Hydra. But these are all versions — echoes — of the 
principal myth of Apollo and Python. 

The monster Python was sent by Hera to persecute 
Leto, when pregnant. Apollo, the moment that he was 
born, attacked the hideous beast and pierced him with his 
arrows. And from the place where the serpent died, there 
burst forth a torrent. 

A similar myth is found among the Scandinavian and 
Teutonic nations. In these Northern mythologies Apollo 
is replaced by Sigurd, Sigfried, and Beowulf. 

The dragon with which Sigurd fights is Fafnir, who 
keeps guard over a treasure of gold. Sigfried, in like 
manner, in the Nibelungen Lied, fights and overcomes a 
mighty dragon, and despoils him of a vast treasure. The 
Anglo-Saxon poem of Beowulf contains a similar engage- 
ment. A monster Grendel haunts a marsh near a town 
on the North Sea. At night the evil spirit rises from the 



Sit, George. 257 

swamp, and flies to the mountains, attacking the armed 
men, and slaying them. Beowulf awakes, fights him, and 
puts him to flight. But next night Grendel again attacks 
him, but is killed by the hero with an enchanted sword. 
He fights a dragon some years later, and robs it of an 
incalculable store of gold. The Icelandic Sagas teem 
with similar stories ; and they abound in all European 
household tales. 

In the Rigveda we have the same story. Indra fights 
with the hideous serpent Ahi, or Vrita, who keeps guard 
over the fountain of rains. In Iranian mythology, the 
same battle is waged between Mithra and the daemon 
Ahriman. 

It seems, then, that the fight with the dragon is a myth 
common to all Aryan peoples. 

Its signification is this : — 

The maiden which the. dragon attempts to devour is 
the earth. The monster is the storm-cloud. The hero 
who fights it is the sun, with his glorious sword, the- 
lightning-flash. By his victory the earth is relieved from 
her peril. The fable has been varied to suit the atmos- 
pheric peculiarities of different climes in which the Aryans 
found themselves. In India, Vrita is coiled about the 
source of water, and the earth is perishing for want of 

17 



258 ' SL George, 

rain, till pierced by the sword of Indra, when the streams 
descend. " I will sing," says the Rigveda, " the ancient 
exploits by which flashing Indra is distinguished. He has 
struck Ahi, he has scattered the waters on the earth, he 
has unlocked the torrents of the heavenly mountains (i. e., 
the clouds). He has struck Ahi, who lurked in the bosom 
of the celestial mountain, he has struck him with that 
sounding weapon wrought for him by Twachtri ; and the 
waters, like cattle rushing to their stable, have poured 
down on the earth." * And again : — 

" O Indra, thou hast killed the violent Ahi, who with- 
held the waters ! " 

" O Indra, thou hast struck Ahi, sleeping guardian of 
the waters, and thou hast precipitated them into the sea ; 
thou hast pierced the compact scale of the cloud ; thou 
hast given vent to the streams, which burst forth on all 
sides." t 

Among the ancient Iranians the same myth prevailed, 
but was sublimated into a conflict between good and evil. 

* Rigveda, sect. i. lee. 2, p. xiii. Ed. Langlois, iii. p. 329. 

t Ibid. vol. i. p. 44 ; ii. p. 447. In the Katha Sarit Sagara, a 
hero fights a daemon monster, and releases a beautiful woman from 
his thraldom. The story as told by Soma Deva has already pro- 
gressed and assumed a form very similar to that of Perseus and 
Andromeda. Katha Sarit Sagara, book vii. c. 42. 



I 



5/. George. 259 

Ahriman represents Ahi, and is the principle of evil; 

corrupted into Kharaman, it became the Armenian name 

for a serpent and the devil. Ahriman entered heaven in 

the shape of a dragon, was met by Mithra, conquered, 

and like the old serpent of Apocalyptic vision, " he shall 

be bound for three thousand years, and burned at the end 

of the world in melted metals." * Aschmogh (Asmodeus) 

is also the infernal serpent of the books of the Avesta ; 

he is but another form of Ahriman. This fable rapidly 

followed in Persia the same process of application to 

known historical individuals that it pursued in Europe. 

In the ninth hymn of the Yagna, Zoroaster asks Homa 

who were the first of mortals to honor him, and Homa 

replies : " The first of mortals to whom I manifested 

myself was Vivanghvat, father of Yima, under whom 

flourished the blessed age which knew not cold of winter, 

or scorching heat of summer, old age or death, or the 

hatred produced by the Devas. The second was Athwya, 

father of Thraetana, the conqueror of the dragon Dahak, 

with three heads, and three throats, and six eyes, and a 

thousand strengths.'* This Thraetana, in the Shahnameh, 

has become Feridun, who overcomes the great dragon 

Zohak. 

* Boundehesch. ii. 351, 416. 



26o Sit, George. 

In Northern mythology, the serpent is probably the 
winter cloud, which broods over and keeps from mortals 
the gold of the sun's light and heat, till in the spring the 
bright orb overcomes the powers of darkness and tempest, 
and scatters his gold over the face of the earth. In the 
ancient Sagas of Iceland, the myth has assumed a very 
peculiar form, which, if it would not have protracted this 
article to an undue length, I should have been glad to 
have followed out. The hero descends mto a tomb, 
where he fights a vampire, who has possession of a glo- 
rious sword, and much gold and silver. After a desperate 
struggle, the hero overcomes, and rises with the treasures 
to the surface of the earth. This, too, represents the sun 
in the northern realms, descending into the tomb of win- 
ter, and there overcoming the power of darkness, from 
whom he takes the sword of the lightning, and the treas- 
ures of fertility, wherewith the earth is blessed on the 
return of the sun to the skies in summer. 

This is probably the ancient form of the Scandinavian 
myth, and the King of gloom reigning over his gold in 
the cairn, was only dragonized when the Norse became 
acquainted with the dragon myths of other nations. In 
the Saga of Hromund Greipson, the hero is let down by 
a rope mto a barrow, into which he had been digging for 



St. George, 261 

six days. He found below the old king Thrain the Viking, 
with a kettle of quivering red flames suspended from the 
roof of the vault above him. This king, years before, had 
gathered all the treasures that he had obtained in a long 
life of piracy, and had suffered himself to be buried alive 
with his ill-gotten wealth. Hromund found him seated 
on a throne in full armor, girded with his sword, crowned, 
and with his feet resting on three boxes containing silver. 
We have the same story in the Gretla; only there the 
dead king is Karr the old ; Grettif' is led to open his 
cairn, by seeing flames dancing on the mound at night. 
In the struggle underground, Grettir and the vampire 
stumble over the bones of the old king's horse, and 
thereby Grettir is able to get the upper hand. 

Similar stories occur in the F16amanna Saga, the 
younger Saga of Olaf the saint (cap. 16), the elder Olaf 
Saga (3-4), the history of Olaf Geirstafaalp, the Holm- 
verja Saga, and the Barda Saga. The last of these is 
strongly impressed with Christian influence, and gives 
indications of the transformation of the evil being into 
a dragon. Gest visited an island off the coast of Hellu- 
land (Labrador), where lay buried a grimly daemon king 
Raknar. He took with him a priest with holy water and 
a crucifix. They had to dig fifty fathoms before they 



262 vS/. George, f 

reached the chamber of the dead. Into this Gest de- 
scended by a rope, holding a sword in one hand, and a 
taper in the other. He saw below a great dragon-ship, 
in which sat five hundred men, champions of the old 
king, who were buried with him. They did not stir, but 
gazed with blank eyes at the taper flame, and snorted 
vapor from their nostrils. Gest despoiled the old king 
of all his gold and armor, and was about to rob him of 
his sword, when the taper expired. Then, at once, the 
five hundred rose from the dragon-ship, and the daemon 
king rushed at him ; they grappled and fought. In his 
need, Gest invoked St, Olaf, who appeared with light 
streaming from his body, and illumining the interior of 
the cairn. Before this light, the power of the dead men 
failed, and Gest completed his work in the vault.* In 
the story of Sigurd and Fafnir, the dragon is more than 
half man ; but in the battle of Gull-Thorir, the creature 
is scaled and winged in the most approved Oriental j 
style, t 

Let me place in apposition a few of the Aryan myths 
relating to the strife between the sun and the daemon of 
darkness, or storm. 

* Birdar S. Snaefellsass. Kjobnhavn. i860, pp. 41-43. 
t GuU-Thoris Saga. Leipzig, 1858. c. iv. 



St. George, 263 

-Indian myth. Indra fights Ahi. 

Indra kills Ahi, who is identified with the storm-cloud, 
and releases from him the pent-up waters, for want of 

I which the earth is perishing. Ahi a serpent. 

^Persian myth. Mithra and Ahriman. 

i Mithra is clearly identical with the sun, and Ahriman 

\ with darkness. Ahriman a dragon. 

Greek myth. Apollo and Python ; Perseus and the sea- 

' monster. 

1 Apollo identical with the sun, Python the storm-cloud. 
Apollo delivers his mother from the assault of the 
dragon. 

Perseus delivers Andromeda from the water-born ser- 
pent. In other Greek fables it is the earth which is 

^ saved from destruction by the victory of the hero. 

Teutonic myth. Sigfried and the dragon. 

Sigfried conquers the dragon w^ho keeps guard over a 

' hidden treasure, the hero kills the dragon and brings 
to light the treasure. 

Scandinavian myth. Sigurd and Fafnir. 
Like the myth of Sigfried. Other, and perhaps earlier 
form, the dragon is a king of Hades, who cannot endure 
light, and who has robbed the earth of its gold. The 
hero descends to his realm, fights, overcomes him, and 
despoils him of his treasures. 



264 SL George, 

Christian myth. St. George and dragon. 

St. George delivers a princess from a monster, who is 
about to devour her. According to another version, 
the dragon guards the spring of water, and the country 
is languishing for want of water; St. George restores 
to the land the use of the spring by slaying the 
dragon. 

This table might have been considerably extended by 
including Keltic and Sclavonic fables, but it is sufficiently 
complete to show that the legend of St. George and the 
dragon forms part of one of the sacred myths of the 
Aryan family, and it is impossible not to grasp its sig- 
nification in the light cast upon it by the Vedic poems. 
And when we perceive how popular this venerable 
myth was in heathen nations of Europe, it is not surpris- 
ing that it should perpetuate itself under Christianity, and 
that, when once transferred to a hero of the new creed, 
it should make that hero one of the most venerated and 
popular of all the saints in the calendar. 

In the reign of Constantine the Great, there existed 
a great and beautiful church between Ramula, the ancient 
Arimathaea, and Lydda or Decapolis, dedicated by the 
Emperor to St. George, over his tomb. Ramula also 
bore the name of Georgia, and the inhabitants pretended 



vS/. George, 265 

that the warrior- saint was a native of their townn. A 
temple of Juno at Constantinople was converted into a 
church, with the same dedication, by the first Christian 
Emperor, and according to one tradition, the bones of the 
martyr were translated from his tomb near Lydda, to the 
church in the great city of Constantine. At an early 
date his head was in Rome, or at all events one of his 
heads, for another found its way to the church of Mares- 
Moutier, in Picardy, after the capture of Byzantium by 
the Turks^ when it was taken from a church erected by 
Constantine Monomachus, dedicated to the saint. The 
Roman head, long forgotten, was rediscovered in 751, 
with an inscription on it which identified it with St. 
George. In 1600 it was given to the church of Ferrara. 
In Rome, at Palermo, and at Naples there were churches 
at a very early date, consecrated to the martyr. In 509 
Clotilda founded a nunnery at Chelles in his honor ; and 
Clovis II. placed a convent at Barala under his invoca- 
tion. . In this religious house was preserved an arm of St. 
George, which in the ninth century was transported to 
Cambray ; and fifty years later St. Germain dedicated an 
altar in Paris to the champion. In the sixth century a 
church was erected to his honor at Mayence ; Clothaire 
in the following century dedicated one at Nimegue, and 



266 5/. George, 

his brother another in Alsace. George had a monastery 
dedicated to him at Thetford, founded in the reign of 
Canute ; a collegiate church in Oxford placed under his 
invocation in the reign of the Conqueror. St. George's, 
Southwark, dates from before the Norman invasion. The 
priory church of Griesly in Derbyshire was dedicated to 
Saints Mary and George, in the reign of Henry I. The 
Crusades gave an impetus to the worship of our patron. 
He appeared in light on the walls of Jerusalem, waving 
his sword, and led the victorious assault on the Holy City. 
Unobtrusively he and St. Michael slipped into the offices, 
and exercised the functions, of the Dioscuri. Robert of 
Flanders, on his return from the Holy Land, presented 
part of an arm of the saint to the city of Toulouse, and 
other portions to the Countess Matilda and to the abbey 
of Auchin. Another arm of St. George fell miraculously 
from heaven upon the altar of St. Pantaleon at Cologne, 
and in honor of it Bishop Anno founded a church. 

The church of Villers-Saint-Leu contains relics of the 
saint, which were given to it in iioi by Alexander, chap- 
lain of Count Ernest, who had received them from Bald- 
win at Jerusalem. 

The enthusiasm of the Crusaders for the Eastern 
soldier-saint who led them to battle, soon raised St. 



St. George. 267 

George to the highest pitch of popularity among the 
nobles and fighting-men of Europe. England, Aragon, 
and Portugal assumed him as their patron, as well as most 
chivalrous orders founded at the date of these wars. In 
1245, on St. George's Day, Frederic of Austria instituted 
an order of knighthood under his patronage ; and its 
banner, white charged with a blood-red cross, in battle 
floated alongside of that of the empire. When the em- 
peror entered the castle of St. Angelo at Rome, these two 
banners were carried before him. The custody of the 
sacred standard of St. George was confided to the Swabian 
knights. In the early part of the thirteenth century there 
existed a military order under the protection of St. George 
at Genoa, and in 1201 an order was founded in Aragon, 
with the title of knights of St. George of Alfama. 

In 1348 King Edward III. founded St. George's 
Chapel, Windsor. In the following year he was besieging 
Calais. Moved by a sudden impulse, says Thomas of 
Walsingham, he drew his sword with the exclamation 
'' Ha ! Saint Edward ! Ha ! Saint George ! " The words 
and action communicated spirit to his soldiers : they fell 
with vigor on the French, and routed them with a slaugh- 
ter of two hundred soldiers. From that time St. George 
replaced Edward the Confessor as patron of England. 



268 5/. George. 

In 1350 the celebrated order was instituted.' In 1415, 
by the Constitutions of Archbishop Chichely, St. George's 
Day was made a major double feast, and ordered to be 
observed the same as Christmas Day, all labor ceasing ; 
and he received the title of spiritual patron of the English 
soldiery. 

In 1545 St. George's Day was observed as a red letter 
day, with proper Collect, Epistle, and Gospel ; but in the 
reign of Edward VI. it was swept away, and the holding 
of the chapter of the Garter on St. George's Day was 
transferred to Whitsun Eve, Whitsun Day, and Whitsun 
Monday. Next year, the first of Queen Mary, the enact- 
ment was reversed, and since then the ancient custom 
has obtained, and the chapter is held annually on the 
feast of the patron. 

In concluding this paper, it remains only to point out 
the graceful allegory which lies beneath the Western fable. 
St. George is any Christian who is sealed at his baptism 
to be '^ Christ's faithful soldier and servant unto his life's 
end," and armed with the breastplate of righteousness, 
the shield of the faith, marked with its blood-red cross, 
the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, 
which is the word or power of God. 

The hideous monster against whom the Christian sol- 



Sit. George, 269 

dier is called to fight is that " old serpent, the devil/' who 
withholds or poisons the streams of grace, and who seeks 
to rend and devour the virgin soul, in whose defence the 
champion fights. 

If the warfare symbolized by this legend be carried out 
in life, then, in Spenser's words — 

"Thou, amongst those saints whom thou doest see, 
Shall be a saint, and thine owne nations frend 
And patrone : thou Saint George shalt called bee, 
Saint George of mery England, the sign of victoree." 



^\]t Cegcnb of tl)e €vo$b. 

SibylL vi. 26. 

IN the year 1850 chance led me to the discovery of a 
Gallo-Roman palace at Pont d'Oli (Pons Aulae), near 
Pau, in the south of France. I was able to exhume the 
whole of the ruins, and to bring to light one of the most 
extensive series of mosaic pavements extant. 

The remains consisted of a mansion two hundred feet 
long, paved throughout with mosaic : it was divided into 
summer and winter apartments; the latter heated by 
means of hypocausts, and of small size ; the former very 
large, and opening on to a corridor above the river, once 
adorned with white marble pillars, having capitals of the 
Corinthian order. One of the first portions of the palace 
to be examined was the atrium, out of which, on the 
west, opened the tablinum, a semi-circular chamber pan- 
elled with alabaster and painted. 

The atrium contained a large quadrangular tank or 
impluvium, the dwarf walls of which were encased in 



The Legend of the Cross. 271 

variegated Pyrenean marbles. On the west side of the 
impluvium, below the step of the tablinum, the pavement 
represented five rows of squares. The squares in the first, 
third, and fifth rows were filled with a graceful pattern 
composed of curves. In the second and fourth rows, 
however, every fourth square contained a distinctly char- 
acterized red cross on white ground, with a delicate white 
spine down the middle (Fig. 2). Some few of these 
crosses had a black floriation in the angles, much resem- 
bling that met with in Gothic crosses (Fig. 4). Immedi- 
ately in front of the tablinum, on the dwarf wall of the 
impluvium, stood the altar to the Penates, which was 
found. The corresponding pavement on the east of the 
impluvium was similar in design to the other, but the 
St. George's crosses were replaced by those of St. Andrew, 
each limb terminating either in a heart-shaped leaf or a 
trefoil (Figs, i, 5). The design on the north and south 
was different, and contained no crosses. The excavations 
to the north led to the summer apartment. The most 
northerly chamber measured 26 feet by 22 feet; it was 
not only the largest, but evidently the principal room of 
the mansion, for the pavement was the most elaborate and 
beautiful. It was bordered by an exquisite running pat- 
tern of vines and grape bunches, springing from four 



272 



The Legend of the Cross, 



drinking vessels in the centres of the north, south, east, 
and west sides. The pattern within this border was of 
circles, containing conventional roses alternately folded 
and expanded. This design was, however, rudely inter- 




rupted by a monstrous cross measuring 19 feet 8 inches 
by 13 feet, with its head towards the south, and its foot 
at the head of a flight of marble steps descending into 
what we were unable to decide whether it was a bath or a 
vestibule. The ground of the cross was white ; the limbs 
were filled with cuttle, lobsters, eels, oysters, and fish, 
swimming as though in their natural element; but the 
centre, where the arms intersected, was occupied by 






The Legend of the Cross, 273 

gigantic bust of Neptune with his trident. The flesh was 
represented red ; the hair, and beard, and trident were a 
blue-black. The arms of the figure did not show : a line 
joining the lower edge of the transverse limbs of the cross 
cut the figure at the breast, leaving the head and shoulders 
above. The resemblance to a crucifix was sufficiently 
remarkable to make the laborers exclaim, as they un- 
covered it, " C'est le bon Dieu, c'est Jesus ! " and they 
regarded the trident as the centurion's spear. A neigh- 
boring cur^ satisfied himself that the pavement was laid 
down in conscious prophecy of Christianity, and he 
pointed to the chalices and grapes as symbolizing the 
holy Eucharist, and the great cross, at the head of what 
we believed to be a circular bath, as typical of Christian 
baptism. With regard to the cross, the following laws 
seem to have governed its representation in the Gallo- 
Roman villa : — 

The St. George's cross occupied the place of honor 
in the chief room, and at the head of this room, not in 
the middle, but near the bath or porch. Again, in the 
atrium this cross was repeated twenty times in the prin- 
cipal place before the tablinum and altar of the household 
divinities, and again in connection with water. Its color 
was always red or white. 

18 



2/4 The Legend of the Cross. 

Six varieties of crosses occurred in the villa (Figs. 1-5) : 
the St. George's cross plain ; the same with foliations in 
the angles ; the same inhabited by fish, and bust of Nep- 
tune : the Maltese cross : the St. Andrew's cross with 
trefoiled ends ; the same with heart-shaped ends. 

On the discovery of the villa, several theories were 
propounded to explain the prominence given to the cross 
in the mosaics. 

It was conjectured by some that the Neptune crucifix 
was a satire upon the Christians. To this it was objected 
that the figure was too large and solemn, and was made 
too prominent, to be so taken; that to the cross was 
assigned the place of honor; and that, independently 
of the bust of the sea-god, it was connected by the 
artists with the presence of water. 

It was supposed by others that the villa had belonged 
to a Christian, and that the execution of his design in the 
pavement had been intrusted to pagans, who, through 
ignorance, had substituted the head of Neptune for that 
of the Saviour. 

Such a solution, though possible, is barely probable. 

My own belief is, that the cross was a sacred sign 
among the Gaulish Kelts, and that the villa at Pau had 
belonged to a Gallo-Roman, who introduced into it the 




m ir 



'>fa 



13 



W' ^^' ^B!"% 



fih 




'n 



it 





22 



23 



2t 




The Legend of the Cross. 2TJ 

symbol of the water-god of his national religion, and 
combined it with the representation of the marine deity 
of the conquerors' creed. 

My reasons for believing the cross to have been a 
Gaulish sign are these : — 

The most ancient coins of the Gauls were circular, 
with a cross in the middle ; Httle wheels, as it were, with 
four large perforations (Figs. 6, 7, 8). That these rouelles 
were not designed to represent wheels is apparent from 
there being only four spokes, placed at right angles. 
Moreover, when the coins of the Greek type took their 
place, the cross was continued as the ornamentation of 
the coin. The gold and silver Greek pieces circulating 
at Marseilles were the cause of the abandonment of the 
primitive type ; and rude copies of the Greek coins were 
made by the Keltic inhabitants of Gaul. In copying 
the foreign pieces, they retained their own symbolic 
cross. 

The reverse of the coins of the Volcae Tectosages, who 
inhabited the greater portion of Languedoc, was im- 
pressed with crosses, their angles filled with pellets, so 
like those on the silver coins of the Edwards, that, were 
it not for the quality of the metal, one would take these 
Gaulish coins to be the production of the Middle Ages. 



278 The Legend of the Cross, 

The Leuci, who inhabited the country round the modem 
Toul, had similar coins. One of their pieces has been 
figured by M. de Saulcy.* It represents a circle con- 
taining a cross, the angles between the arms occupied by 
a chevron. Some of the crosses have bezants, or pearls, 
forming a ring about them, or occupying the spaces 
between their limbs. Near Paris, at Choisy-le-Roy, was 
discovered a Gaulish coin representing a head, in barbar- 
ous imitation of that on a Greek medal, and the reverse 
occupied by a serpent coiled round the circumference, 
and enclosing two birds. Between these birds is a cross, 
with pellets at the end of each limb, and a pellet in each 
angle. 

A similar coin has been found in numbers near 
Arthenay, in Loiret, as well as others of analogous type. 
Other Gaulish coins bear the cross on both obverse and 
reverse. About two hundred pieces of this description 
were found in 1835, in the village of Cremiat-sur-Yen, 
near Quimper, in a brown earthen urn, with ashes and 
charcoal, in a rude kistvaen of stone blocks ; proving that 
the cross was used on the coins in Armorica, at the time 
when incremation was practised. This cross with pellets, 
a characteristic of Gaulish coins, became in time the 

* Revue de Numismatique, 1836. 



The Legend of the Cross. 279 

recognized reverse of early French pieces, and intro- 
duced itself into England with the Anglo-Norman kings. 

We unfortunately know too little of the iconography 
of the Gauls, to be able to decide whether the cross was 
with them the symbol of a water deity ; but I think it 
probable, and for this reason, that it is the sign of gods 
connected, more or less remotely, with water in other 
religions. That it was symbolic among the Irish and 
British Kelts is more than probable. The temple in the 
tumulus of Newgrange is in the shape of a cross with 
rounded arms (Fig. 9). Curiously enough, the so-called 
Phoenician ruin of Giganteia, in Gozzo, resembles it in 
shape. The shamrock of Ireland derives its sacredness 
from its affecting the same form. In the mysticism of 
the Druids the stalk or long arm of the cross represented 
the way of life, and the three lobes of the clover-leaf, 
or the short arms of the cross, symbolized the three 
conditions of the spirit-world. Heaven, Purgatory, and 
Hell. 

Let us turn to the Scandinavians. Their god Thorr 
was the thunder, and the hammer was his symbol. It 
was with this hammer that Thorr crushed the head of the 
great Mitgard serpent, that he destroyed the giants, that 
he restored the dead goats to life which drew his car, that 



28o The Legend of the Cross, 

he consecrated the pyre of Baldur. This hammer was a 
cross. 

Just as the St. George's cross appears on the Gaulish 
coins, so does the cross cramponn^e, or Thorr's hammer 
(Fig. ii), appear on the Scandinavian moneys. 

In ploughing a field near Bornholm, in Fyen, in 1835, 
a discovery was made of several gold coins and. ornaments 
belonging to ancient Danish civilization. The collection 
consisted of personal ornaments, such as brooches, fibulae, 
and torques, and also of pieces of money, to which were 
fastened rings in order that they might be strung on a 
necklace. Among these were two rude copies of coins 
of the successors of Constantine ; but the others were 
of a class very common in the North. They were im- 
pressed with a four-footed horned beast, girthed, and 
mounted by a monstrous human head, intended, in bar- 
barous fashion, to represent the rider. In front of the 
head was the sign of Thorr's hammer, a cross cram- 
ponnee. Four of the specimens bearing this symbol 
exhibited likewise the name of Thorr in runes. A still 
ruder coin, discovered with the others, was deficient in 
the cross, whose place was occupied by a four-point star.* 

Among the flint weapons discovered in Denmark are 

* Transactions of the Society of Northern Antiquaries for 1836. 



The Legend of the Cross. 281 

stone cruciform hammers, with a hole at the intersection 
of the arms for the insertion of the haft (Fig. 10). As 
the lateral limbs could have been of little or no use, it is 
probable that these cruciform hammers were those used 
in consecrating victims in Thorr's worship. 

The cross of Thorr is still used in Iceland as a magical 
sign in connection with storms of wind and rain. 

King Olaf, Longfellow tells us, when keeping Christmas 
at Drontheim — 

"O'er his drinking-horn, the sign 
He made of the Cross Divine, 

As he drank, and mutterM his prayers; 
But the Berserks evermore 
Made the sign of the Hammer of Thorr 
Over theirs." 

Actually they both made the same symbol. 

This we are told by Snorro Sturleson, in the Heims- 
kringla,* when he describes the sacrifice at Lade, at 
which King Hakon, Athelstan's foster-son was present : 
'* Now, when the first full goblet was filled. Earl Sigurd 
spoke some words over it, and blessed it in Odin's name, 
and drank to the king out of the horn ; and the king 
then took it, and made the sign of the cross over it. 
Then said Kaare of Greyting, ^ What does the king mean 

* Heimskringla, Saga iv. c. 18. 



282 The Legend of the Cross. 

by doing so? will he not sacrifice?* But Earl Sigurd 
replied, ' The king is doing what all of you do who trust 
in your power and strength; for he is blessing the full 
goblet in the name of Thorr, by making the sign of his 
hammer over it before he drinks it.' " 

Bells were rung in the Middle Ages to drive away 
thunder. Among the German peasantry the sign of the 
cross is used to dispel a thunder-storm. The cross is 
used because it resembles Thorr's hammer, and Thorr 
is the Thunderer: for the same reason bells were often 
marked with the ^^ fylfot," or cross of Thorr (Fig. ii), 
especially where the Norse settled, as in Lincolnshire and 
Yorkshire. Thorr's cross is on the bells of Appleby, and 
Scotherne, Waddingham, Bishop's Norton, and West Bark- 
with, in Lincolnshire, on those of Hathersage in Derby- 
shire, Mexborough in Yorkshire^ and many more. 

The fylfot is curiously enough the sacred Swaslika of 
the Buddhist ; and the symbol of Buddha on the reverse 
of a coin found at Ugain is a cross of equal arms, with 
a circle at the extremity of each, and the fylfot in each 
circle. 

The same peculiar figure occurs on coins of Syracuse, 
Corinth, and Chalcedon, and is frequently employed on 
Etruscan cinerary urns. It curiously enough appears on 



The Legend of the Cross. 283 

the dress of a fossor, as a sort of badge of his office, on 
one of the paintings in the Roman catacombs. 

But, leaving the cross cramponnee, let us examine 
some other crosses. 

Sozomen, the ecclesiastical historian, says that, on the 
destruction of the Serapium in Egypt, " there were found 
sculptured on the stones certain characters regarded as 
sacred, resembling the sign of the cross. This representa- 
tion, interpreted by those who knew the meaning, signified 
*The Life to come.' This was the occasion of a great 
number of pagans embracing Christianity, the more so 
because other characters announced that the temple would 
be destroyed when this character came to light.'* * Soc- 
rates gives further particulars : "Whilst they were demol- 
ishing and despoiling the temple of Serapis, they found 
characters, engraved on the stone, of the kind called 
hieroglyphics, the which characters had the figure of the 
cross. When the Christians and the Greeks [i. e. heathen] 
saw this, they referred the signs to their own religions. 
The Christians, who regarded the cross as the symbol 
of the salutary passion of Christ, thought that this char- 
acter was their own. But the Greeks said it was common 
to Christ and Serapis ; though this cruciform character is, 

* Sozomen, Hist. Eccles. vii. c. 14. 



284 The Legend of the Cross. 

in fact, one thing to the Christians, and another to the 
Greeks. A controversy having arisen, some of the Greeks 
[heathen] converted to Christianity, who understood the 
hieroglyphics, interpreted this cross-like figure to signify 
' The Life to come.' The Christians, seizing on this as 
in favor of their religion, gathered boldness and assur- 
ance j and as it was shown by other sacred characters 
that the temple of Serapis was to have an end when was 
brought to light this cruciform character, signifying * The 
Life to come,' a great number were converted and were 
baptized, confessing their sins." * 

Rufinus, who tells the story also, says that this took 
place at the destruction of the Serapium at Canopus ; t 
but Socrates and Sozomen probably followed Sophronius, 
who wrote a book on the destruction of the Serapium, 
and locate the event in Alexandria.}: 

Rufinus says, " The Egyptians are said to have the 
sign of the Lord's cross among those letters which are 
called sacerdotal — of which letter or figure this, they say, 
is the interpretation : ' The Life to come.' " 

* Socrat. Hist. Eccles. v. c. 17. 

t Rufin. Hist. Eccles. ii. c. 29. 

X "Sophronius, vir apprime eruditus, laudes Bethleem adhuc 
puer, et nuper de subversione Serapis insignem librum composuit." 
— Hieronym. Vit Illust. 



The Legeitd of the Cross. 285 

There is some slight difficulty as to fixing the date 
of the destruction of the Serapium. Marcellinus refers 
it to the year 389, but some chronologists have moved 
it to 391. It was certainly overthrown in the reign of 
Theodosius I. 

There can be little doubt that the cross in the Serapium 
was the Crux ansata (Fig. 12), the St. Anthony's cross, 
or Tau with a handle. The antiquaries of last century 
supposed it to be a Nile key or a phallus, significations 
purely hypothetical and false, as were all those they attrib- 
uted to Egyptian hieroglyphs. As Sir Gardner Wilkinson 
remarks, it is precisely the god Nilus who is least often 
represented with this symbol in his hand,* and the Nile 
key is an ascertained figure of different shape. Now it is 
known for certain that the symbol is that of Hfe. Among 
other indications, we have only to cite the Rosetta stone, 
on which it is employed to translate the title alcDuo^Los 
given to Ptolemy Epiphanius. 

The Christians of Egypt gladly accepted this witness 
to the cross, and reproduced it in their churches and 
elsewhere, making it precede, follow, or accompany their 
inscriptions. Thus, beside one of the Christian inscrip- 
tions at Phile is seen both a Maltese cross and a crux 

* Manners and Customs of the Ancient Egyptians, iv. p. 341. 



286 ' The Legend of the Cross, 

ansata. In a painting covering the end of a church in 
the cemetery of El-Khargeh, in the Great Oasis, are three 
handled crosses around the principal subject, which seems 
to have been a figure of a saint.* 

Not less manifest is the intention in an inscription in a 
Christian church to the east of the Nile in the desert. 
It is this : — - 

KAeO^AIKH + EKKAH^CIA. 

Beside, or in the hand of, the Egyptian gods, this symbol 
is generally to be seen : it is held in the right hand, by 
the loop, and indicates the Eternity of Life which is the 
attribute of divinity. When Osiris is represented holding 
out the crux ansata to a mortal, it means that the person 
to whom he presents it has put off mortality, and entered 
on the life to come. 

Several theories have been started to account for the 
shape. The Phallic theory is monstrous, and devoid of 
evidence. It has also been suggested that the Tau (X) 
represents a table or altar, and that the loop symbolizes 
a vase f or an tgg % upon that altar. 

* Hoskins, Visit to the Great Oasis, Lond. 1837, plate xii. 

t " Hieroglyphica ejugdem (vocis) figura formam exhibet mensae 
sacrae fulcro innixae cui vas quoddam religionis indicium super- 
positum est." — P. Ungarelli, Interpretat. Obeliscorum Urbis, p. 5. 

X Dognee, Les Symboles Antiques, L'Qiuf. Bruxelies, 1865. 



The Legend of the Cross. 287 

These explanations are untenable when brought into 
contact with the monuments of Egypt. The ovoid form 
of the upper member is certainly a handle, and is so used 
(Fig. 13). No one knows, and probably no one ever will 
know, what originated the use of this sign, and gave it 
such significance. 

The Greek cross is also found on Egyptian monuments, 
but less frequently than the cross of St. Anthony. A 
figure of a Shari (Fig. 14), from Sir Gardner Wilkinson's 
book, has a necklace round his throat, from which de- 
pends a pectoral cross. A similar ornament hangs on the 
breast of Tiglath Pileser, in the colossal tablet from Nim- 
roud, now in the British Museum (Fig. 15). Another 
king from the ruins of Nineveh wears a Maltese cross on 
his bosom. And another, from the hall of Nisroch, car- 
ries an emblematic necklace, consisting of the sun sur- 
rounded by a ring, the moon, a Maltese cross likewise in 
a ring, a three-horned cap, and a symbol like two horns.* 

A third Egyptian cross is that represented Fig. 16, 
which apparently is intended for a Latin cross rising out 
of a heart, like the mediaeval emblem of "Cor in Cruce, 
Crux in Corde : " it is the hieroglyph of goodness.f 

The handled cross was certainly a sacred symbol 

* Bonomi, Nineveh and its Palaces, pp. 303, 333, 414. 

t H. W. Westrop, in Gentleman's Magazine, N. S., vol. xv. p. 80. 



288 The Legend of the Cross. 

among the Babylonians. It occurs repeatedly on their 
cylinders, bricks, and gems. 

On a cylinder in the Paris Cabinet of Antiquities, 
published by Miinter, * are four figures, the first winged, 
the second armed with what seems to be thunderbolts. 
Beside him is the crux ansata, with a hawk sitting on the 
oval handle. The other figures are a woman and a child. 
This cross is half the height of the deity. 

Another cylinder in the same Cabinet represents 
three personages. Between two with tiaras is the same 
symbol. A third in the same collection bears the 
same three principal figures as the first. The winged 
deity holds a spear; the central god is armed with a 
bundle of thunderbolts and a dart, and is accompanied 
by the cross; the third, a female, bears a flower. On 
another and still more curious cylinder is a monarch or 
god, behind whom stands a servant, holding up the symbol 
(Fig. 17). The god is between two handled crosses, and 
behind the servant is a Maltese cross. Some way above 
is a bird with expanded wings. Again, on another the , 
winged figure is accompanied by the cross. A remark- 
able specimen, from which I have copied the principal 
figure (Fig. 18), represents a god holding the sacred sign 
by the long arm, whilst a priest offers him a gazelle. 
* Miinter, Religion d. Babylonier, Taf. i. 



The Legend of the Cross. 2S9 

An oval seal, of white chalcedony, engraved in the 
Memoires de TAcad^mie royale des Inscriptions et Belles 
Lettres (vol. xvi.), has as subject a standing figure be- 
tween two stars, beneath which are handled crosses. 
Above the head of the deity is the triangle, or symbol 
of the Trinity. 

This seal is of uncertain origin : it is supposed not 
to be Babylonish, but Phoenician. The Phoenicians also 
regarded the cross as a sacred sign. The goddess Astarte, 
the moon, the presiding divinity over the watery element, 
is represented on the coins of Byblos holding a long staff 
surmounted by a cross, and resting her foot on the prow 
of a galley, and not unlike the familiar figures of Faith on 
the Christian Knowledge Society books. 

The Cyclopean temple at Gozzo, the island adjacent 
to Malta, has been supposed to be a shrine of the 
Phoenicians to Mylitta or Astarte. It is of a cruciform 
shape (Fig. 9). A superb medal of Cilicia, bearing a 
Phoenician legend, and struck under the Persian domina- 
tion, has on one side a figure of this goddess with a crux 
ansata by her side, the lower member split. 

Another form of the cross (Figs. 19, 20) is repeated 
frequently and prominently on coins of Asia Minor. It 
occurs as the reverse of a silver coin supposed to be of 

19 



290 The Legend of the Cross. 

Cyprus, on several Cilician coins : it is placed beneath 
the throne of Baal of Tarsus, on a Phoenician coin of 
that town, bearing the legend T'ln i)3>n (Baal Tharz). 
A medal, possibly of the same place, with partially oblit- 
erated Phoenician characters, has the cross occupying the 
entire field of the reverse side. Several, with inscriptions 
in unknown characters, have a ram on one side, and the 
cross and ring on the other. Another has the sacred 
bull accompanied by this symbol; others have a lion's 
head on obverse, and the cross and circle on the 
reverse. 

A beautiful Sicilian medal of Gamarina bears a sw^n 
and altar, and beneath the altar is one of these crosses 
with a ring attached to it.* 

As in Phoenician iconography this cross generally ac- 
companies a deity, in the same manner as the handled 
cross is associated with the Persepolitan, Babylonish, and 
Egyptian gods, we may conclude that it had with the 
Phoenicians the same signification of life eternal. That 
it also symbolized regeneration through water, I also be- 
lieve. On Babylonish cylinders it is generally employed 
in conjunction with the hawk or, eagle, either seated on 

* These medals are engraved to accompany the article of M. 
Raoul-Rochette on the Croix ansee, in the Mem. de TAcademie des 
Inscr. et Belles Lettres, torn. xvi. 



The Legend of the Cross, 291 

it, or flying above it. This eagle is Nisroch, whose eyes 
are always flowing with tears for the death of TammOz. 
Nesr, or Nisroch, is certainly the rain-cloud. In Greek 
iconography Zeus, the heaven, is accompanied by the 
eagle to symbolize the cloud. On several Phoenician or 
uncertain coins of Asia Minor the eagle and the cross go 
together. Therefore I think that the cross may symbolize 
life restored by rain. 

An inscription in Thessaly, EPMAft X0ONIOY, is 
accompanied by a Calvary cross (Fig. 21) ; and Greek 
crosses of equal arms adorn the tomb of Midas, in Phry- 
gia. Crosses of different shapes, chiefly like Figs. 2 and 1 1, 
are common on ancient cinerary urns in Italy. These two 
forms occur on sepulchral vessels found under a bed of vol- 
canic tufa on the Alban mount, and of remote antiquity. 

It is curious that the T should have been used on 
the roll of the Roman soldiery as the sign of life, whilst 
the designated death.* 

But, long before the Romans, long before the Etrus- 
cans, there lived in the plains of Northern Italy a people 
to whom the cross was a religious symbol, the sign be- 
neath which they laid their dead to rest ; a people of 

* Isidor. Origin, i. c. 23. "T nota in capite versiculi supposita 
superstitem designat." Persius, Sat. iv. 13. Rufin. in Hieronym. 
ap. Casaubon ad Pers. 



292 The Legend of the Cross. 

whom history tells nothing, knowing not their name ; but 
of whom antiquarian research has learned this, that they 
lived in ignorance of the arts of civilization, that they 
dwelt in villages built on platforms over lakes, and that 
they trusted in the cross to guard, and may be to revive, 
their loved ones whom they committed to the dust. 
Throughout Emilia are found remains of these people ; 
these remains form quarries whence manure is dug by the 
peasants of the present day. These quarries go by the 
name of terramares. They are vast accumulations of 
cinders, charcoal, bones, fragments of pottery, and other 
remains of human industry. As this earth is very rich in 
phosphates, it is much appreciated by the agriculturists as 
a dressing for their land. In these terramares there are 
no human bones. The fragments of earthenware belong 
to articles of domestic use ; with them are found querns, 
moulds for metal, portions, of cabin floors and walls, and 
great quantities of kitchen refuse. They are deposits 
analogous to those which have been discovered in Den- 
mark and in Switzerland. The metal discovered in the 
majority of these terramares is bronze. The remains 
belong to three distinct ages. In the first none of the 
fictile ware was turned on the wheel or fire-baked. Some- 
times these deposits exhibit an advance of civilization. 



The Legend of the Cross. 293 

Iron came into use, and with it the potter's wheel was 
discovered, and the earthenware was put in the furnace. 

When in the same quarry these two epochs are found, 
the remains of the second age are always superposed 
over those of the bronze age. 

A third period is occasionally met with, but only occa- 
sionally. A period when a rude art introduced itself, and 
representations of animals or human beings adorned the 
pottery. Among the remains of this period is found the 
first trace of money, the aes rude, little bronze fragments 
without shape. 

According to the calculations of M. Des Vergers, the 
great development of Etruscan civilization took place 
about 290 years before the foundation of Rome, more 
than 1040 years before our era. The age of the terra- 
mares must be long antecedent to the time of Etruscan 
civilization. The remote antiquity of these remains may 
be gathered from the amount of accumulation over them. 
A section of the deposit in Parma, where was one of these 

lacustrine villages is as follows : — 

ft. in. 

Roman and later remains a depth of 41 

Midden of ancient inhabitants, three deposits separated by 

thin layers of red earth or ashes 68 

Latest bed of lake containing piles 70 

Secondary bed containing piles 33 

Original bed of lake containing piles ." 21 o 



294 The Legend of the Cross. 

Twice had the accumulation risen so as to necessitate the 
re-driving of piles, and over the last, the deposits had 
reached the height of 6 feet 8 inches. Since the age 
when these people vanished, earth has accumulated to 
the depth of 4 feet. 

At Castione, not far from the station of Borgo St. 
Donino, on the line between Parma and Placenza, is a 
convent built on a mound. Where that mound rises there 
was originally a lake, and the foundations of the building 
are laid in the ruins of an ancient population which filled 
the lake, and converted it into a hill of refuse. 

From the broken bones in the middens, we learn that 
the roebuck, the stag, the wild boar, then ranged the 
forests, that cattle, pigs, sheep, goats, and dogs were 
domesticated ; that these people had two kinds of horses, 
one a powerful animal, the other small-boned, and that 
horseflesh was eaten by the inhabitants of the terramares. 

Wheat, barley, millet, and beans have been found about 
the piles, together with the stones of wild plums, sloes, 
and cherries, also crab-apple pips. 

A bronze dagger was found at Castione, a spear-head 
of the same metal in the deposit of Bargone di Salso. A 
hatchet came from the terramare of Noceto ; quantities 
of little wheels, of unknown use, have been discovered, 



The Legend of the Cross, 295 

also hair-pins and combs. One, for a lady's back-hair, ' 
ornamented, and of stag's horn, came from the terramare 
of Fodico di Poviglio. The pottery found is mostly in 
fragments. Sometimes the bottoms of the vessels were 
rudely engraved with crosses (Figs. 22, 23, 24). 

At Villanova, in the Commune of St. Maria delle Ca- 
selle, near Bologna, has been discovered a cemetery of 
this ancient people. The graves cover a space measuring 
about 73 yards by 2)^ yards. One hundred and thirty- 
three tombs have been examined. They were constructed 
of great bowlders, rectangular, somewhat cylindrical, and 
slightly conical. Earth had accumulated over them, and 
they were buried. They were about four feet deep. The 
cist was floored with slabs of freestone, the sides were 
built up of bowlders ; other cists were constructed of 
slabs, and cubical in shape. A hundred and seventy-nine 
of the bodies had been burnt. Each tomb contained a 
cinerary urn containing the calcined human remains. The 
urns were of a peculiar shape, and appeared to have been 
made for the purpose. They resembled a dice-box, and 
consisted of a couple of inverted cones with a partition 
at their bases, where they were united. Half-melted 
remains of ornaments were found with some of the 
human ashes. In one vessel was a charred fragment of a 



296 The Legend of the Cross, 

horse's rib. Therefore it is likely that the favorite horse 
was sacrificed and consumed with his master. 

The mouth of the urn which contained the ashes of 
the deceased was closed with a little vessel or saucer. 
Near the remains of the dead were found curious solid 
double cones with rounded ends ; these ends were elabo- 
rately engraved with crosses (Figs. 23, 25, 27). In the 
ossuaries made of double cones, around the diaphragm 
ran a line of circles containing crosses (Fig. 26). 

Another cemetery of the same people exists at Gola- 
secca, on the plateau of Somma, at the extremity of the 
Lago Maggiore. A vast number of sepulchres have there 
been opened. They belong to the same period as those 
of Villanova, the age of lacustrine habitations. 

" That which characterizes the sepulchres of Golasecca, 
and gives them their highest interest/' says M. de Mortil- 
let, who investigated them, "is this, — first, the entire 
absence of all organic representations; we only found 
three, and they were exceptional, in tombs not belonging 
to the plateau ; — secondly, the almost invariable presence 
of the cross under the vases in the tombs. When one 
reverses the ossuaries, the saucer-lids, or the accessory 
vases, one saw almost always, if in good preservation, a 
cross traced thereon. . . . The examination of the tombs 



The Legend of the Cross, 297 

of Golasecca proves in a most convincing, positive, and 
precise manner, that which the terramares of Emilia had 
only indicated, but which had been confirmed by the 
cemetery of Villanova ; 'that above a thousand years be- 
fore Christ, the cross was already a religious emblem of 
frequent employment." * 

It may be objected to this, that the cross is a sign so 
easily made, that it was naturally the first attempted by a 
rude people. There are, however, so many varieties of 
crosses among the urns of Golasecca, and ingenuity 
seems to have been so largely exercised in diversifying 
this one sign, without recurring to others, that I can- 
not but believe the sign itself had a religious signification. 

On the other side of the Alps, at the same period, 
lived a people in a similar state of civilization, whose 
palustrine habitations and remains have been carefully 
explored. Among the Swiss potteries, however, the cross 
is very rarely found. 

In the depths of the forests of Central America is a 
ruined city. It was not inhabited at the time of the con- 
quest of Mexico by the Spaniards. They discovered the 

* De Mortillet, Le signe de la Croix avant le Christianisme. 
Paris, 1866. The title of this book is deceptive. The subject is 
the excavations of pre-historic remains in Northern Italy, and pre- 
Christian crosses are only casually and cursorily dealt with. 



298 The Legend of the Cross, 

temples and palaces of Chiapa, but of Palenque they 
knew nothing. According to tradition it was founded by 
Votan in the ninth century before the Christian era.f 
The principal building in Palenque is the palace, 228 feet 
long, by 180 feet, and 40 feet high. The Eastern fagade 
has fourteen doors opening on a terrace, with bas-reliefs 
between them. A noble tower rises above the courtyard 
in the centre. In this building are several small temples 
or chapels, with altars standing. At the back of one of 
these altars is a slab of gypsum, on which are sculptured 
two figures standing, one on each sideof a cross (Fig. 28), 
to which one is extending his hands with an offering of a 
baby or a monkey. The cross is surrounded with rich 
feather-work, and ornamental chains.* 

The style of sculpture, and the accompanying hiero- 
glyphic inscriptions, leave no room for doubting it to be a 
heathen representation. Above the cross is a bird of 
peculiar character, perched, as we saw the eagle Nisroch, 
on a cross upon a Babylonish cylinder. The same cross 
is represented on old pre-Mexican MSS., as in the 
Dresden Codex, and that in the possession of Herr 
Fejervary, at the end of which is a colossal cross, in the 
midst of which is represented a bleeding deity, and fig- 

* Stephens, Central America. London, 1842. Vol. ii. p. 346. 



I 



The Legend of the Cross. 299 

ures stand round a Tau cross, upon which is perched 
the sacred bird.* 

The cross was also used in the north of Mexico. It 
occurs amongst the Mixtecas and in Queredaro. Si- 
guenza speaks of an Indian cross which was found in the 
cave of Mixteca Baja. Among the ruins on the island 
of Zaputero in Lake Nicaragua were also found old 
crosses reverenced by the Indians. White marble crosses 
were found on the island of St. Ulloa, on its discovery. 
In the state of Oaxaca, the Spaniards found that wooden 
crosses were erected as sacred symbols, so also in Agua- 
tolco, and among the Zapatecas. The cross was vener- 
ated as far as Florida on one side, and Cibola on the 
other. In South America, the same sign was considered 
symbolical and sacred. It was revered in Paraguay. In 
Peru the Incas honored a cross made out of a single 
piece of jasper ; it was an emblem belonging to a former 
civilization. 

Among the Muyscas at Cumana the cross was regarded 
with devotion, and was believed to be endued with power 
to drive away evil spirits ; consequently new-born children 
were placed under the sign.f 

* Klemm, Kulturgeschichte, v. 142, 143. 

t See list of authorities in Miiller, Geschichte der Amerikan- 
ischen Urreligionen. Basel, 1855, pp. 371, 421, 498, 499. 



I 



300 The Legend of the Cross. 

Probably all these crosses, certainly those of Central 
America, were symbols of the Rain-god. This we are 
told by the conquerors, of the crosses on the island of 
Cozumel. The cross was not an original symbol of th^ 
Azteks and Tolteks, but of the Maya race, who inhabited 
Mexico, Guatemala, and Yucatan. The Mayas were sub- 
divided into the tribes of Totonacs, Othomi, Huasteks, 
Tzendales, &c., and were conquered by a Nahual race 
from the North, called Azteks and Tolteks, who founded 
the great Mexican empire with which Cortez and his 
Spaniards were brought in collision.* This Maya stock 
was said to have been highly civilized, and the conquered 
to have influenced their conquerors. 

The Maya race invaded Central America, coming from 
the Antilles, when the country was peopled by the Quina- 
mies, to whom the Cyclopean erections still extant are 
attributed. They were overthrown by Votan, b.c. 800. 
The cross was adopted by the Azteks, from the conquered 
Mayas. It was the emblem of Quiateot, the god of Rain. 
In order to obtain rain little boys and girls were sacrificed 
to him, and their flesh was devoured at a sacred banquet 
by the chiefs. Among the Mexicans, the showery month 

* It is exceedingly difficult to classify these races, and arrive at 
any exact conclusions with regard to their history. The Tzendales 
were probably never conquered,. 



The Legend of the Cross. 301 

Quiahuitl received its name from him. In Cibola, water 
as the generator was honored under this symbol; in 
Cozumel, the sacred cross in the temples was of wood or 
stone, ten palms high, and to it were offered incense 
and quails. To obtain showers, the people bore it in 
procession. 

The Tolteks said that their national deity Quetzalcoatl 
had introduced the sign and ritual of the cross, and it was 
their God of Rain and Health, and was called the Tree 
of Nutriment, or Tree of Life. On this account also was 
the mantle of the Toltek atmospheric god covered with 
red crosses. 

The cross was again a symbol of mysterious significance 
in Brahminical iconography. In the Cave of Elephanta, 
in India, over the head of a figure engaged in massacring 
infants, is to be seen the cross. It is placed by Mliller, 
in his " Glauben, Wissen, und Kunst der alten Hindus," 
ill the hands of Seva, Brahma, Vishnu, Tvashtri (Fig. 29). 
This cross has a wheel in the centre, and is called Kiakra, 
or Tschakra. When held by Vishnu, the world-sustaining 
principle, it signifies his power to penetrate heaven and 
earth, and bring to naught the powers of evil. It symbol- 
izes the eternal governance of the world, and to it the 
worshipper of Vishnu attributes as many virtues as does 



302 The Legend of the Cross. 

the. devout Catholic to the Christian cross. Fra Paolino 
tells us it was used by the ancient kings of India as a 
sceptre. 

In a curious Indian painting reproduced by Muller 
(Tab. I., fig. 2), Brahma is represented crowned with 
clouds, with lilies for eyes, with four hands — one holding 
the necklace of creation ; another the Veda ; a third, the 
chalice of the source of life ; the fourth, the fiery cross. 
Another painting (Tab. i., fig. 78) represents Krishna in 
the centre of the world as its sustaining principle, with 
six arms, three of which hold the cross, one a sceptre of 
dominion, another a flute, a third a sword. Another 
(Tab. II., fig. 61) gives Jama, the judge of the nether 
world, with spear, sword, scales, torch, and cross. Tab. 
II., fig. 140, gives Brawani, the female earth-principle, 
holding a lily, a flame, a sword, and a cross. The list of 
representations might be greatly extended. 

It was only natural that the early and mediaeval Chris- 
tians, finding the cross a symbol of life among the nations 
of antiquity, should look curiously into the Old Testament, 
to see whether there were not foreshadowings in it of 
"the wood whereby righteousness cometh." 

They found it in the blood struck on the lintel and the 
door-posts of the houses of the Israelites in Egypt. They 



The Legend of the Cross, 303 

supposed the rod of Moses to have been, headed with the 
Egyptian Crux ansata, in which case its employment in 
producing the storm of rain and hail, in dividing the Red 
Sea, in bringing streams of water from the rock, testify 
to its symbolic character with reference to water. They 
saw it in Moses with arms expanded on the Mount, in 
the pole with transverse bar upon which was wreathed 
the brazen serpent, and in the two sticks gathered by the 
Widow of Sarepta. But especially was it seen in the 
passage of Ezekiel (ix. 4. 6), **The Lord said unto him, 
Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of 
Jerusalem, and set a mark upon the foreheads of the men 
that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that be 
done in the midst thereof. Slay utterly old and young, 
both maids, and little children, and women : but come not 
near any man upon whom is the mark ; and begin at My 
sanctuary.' ' In the Vulgate, it stands : '' Et signa Thau 
super frontes vivorum gementium." There is some doubt 
as to whether the sign Thau should be inserted or not. 
The Septuagint does not give it. It simply says So? 
aT)iJL€iov. St. Jerome testifies that the versions of Aquila 
and Symmachus, written, the one under Adrian, the other 
under Marcus Aurelius, were without it, and that it was 
only in the version of Theodotion, made under Septimius 



304 The Legend of the Cross. 

Severus, that the T was inserted. Nevertheless St. Jerome 
adopted it in his translation. 

On the other hand TertuUian saw the cross in this 
passage.* The Thau was the old Hebrew character, 
which the Samaritan resembled, and which was shaped 
like a cross. St. Jerome probably did not adopt his ren- 
defmg without foundation, for he was well skilled in 
Hebrew, and he refers again and again to this passage 
of Ezekiel.f The Epistle of St. Barnabas seems to allude 
to it ; % so do St. Cyprian, St. Augustine, Origen, and St. 
Isidore. § Bishop Lowth was disposed to accept the 
Thau, so was Dr. Miinter, the Protestant bishop of Zee- 
land. But, indeed, there need be little doubt as to the 
passage. The word for sign used by the prophet is Ifi 
Tau^ meaning, as Gesenius says in his Lexicon, signum 
cruciforme ; and he adds, "The Hebrews on their coins 
adopted the most ancient cruciform sign +." 

The Mediaevals went further still : they desired to see 
the cross still stronger characterized in the history of the 

* Adv. Marcion. iii. 22 : *' Est enim littera, Graecorum Thau, 
nostra autem T, species crucis quam portendebant futuram in 
frontibus nostris apud veram et catholicam Hierusalem." 

t In Ezech. ix. 4. Epistol. ad Fabiol. In Isaia c. Ixvi. 

% Epist. ch. ix : ^ravpbs eV t^ T cficWfU ex^tj/ t);x/ X^P**'* 

§ Cypr. Testimon. adv. Jud. ii. c. 27. August, de Alterc. Synag. 
et Eccles. 



The Legend of the Cross. 305 

Jewish Church, and, as the records of the Old Covenant 
were deficient on that point, they supplemented them 
with fable. 

That fable is the romance or Legend of the Cross, a 
legend of immense popularity in the Middle Ages, if we 
may judge by the numerous representations of its 
leading incidents, which meet us in stained glass and 
fresco. 

In the churches of Troyes alone, it appears on the 
windows of St. Martin-es-Vignes, of St. Pantaleon, St. 
Madeleine, and St. Nizier.* 

It is frescoed along the walls of the choir of the church 
of St. Croce at Florence, by the hand of Agnolo Gaddi. 
Pietro della Francesca also dedicated his pencil to the 
history of the Cross in a series of frescoes in the Chapel 
of the Bacci, in the church of St. Francesco at Arezzo. 
It occurs as a predella painting among the specimens of 
early art in the Academia delle Belle Arti at Venice, and 
is the subject of a picture* by Beham in the Munich 
Gallery.f The legend is told in full in the Vita Christi, 
printed at Troyes in 15 17; in the Legenda Aurea of 
Jacques de Voragine ; in an old Dutch work, " Gerschie- 

* Curiosites de la Champagne. Paris, i860. 

t Lady Eastlake's History of our Lord. Lond. 1865, ii. p. 390. 



3o6 The Legend of the Cross. 

denis van det heylighe Cruys ; " in a French MS. of the 
thirteenth century in the British Museum. Gervase of ^ 
Tilbury relates a portion of it in his Otia Imperalia,* 
quoting from Comestor ; it appears also in the Speculum 
Historiale, in Gottfried von Viterbo, in the Chronicon 
Engelhusii, and elsewhere. 

Gottfried introduces a Hiontus in the place of Seth in 
the following story; Hiontus is corrupted from lonicus 
or lonithus. 

The story is as follows : — 

When our first father was banished Paradise, he lived 
in penitence, striving to recompense for the past by prayer 
and toil. When he reached a great age and felt death 
approach, he summoned Seth to his side, and said, " Go, 
my son, to the terrestrial Paradise, and ask the Archangel 
who keeps the gate to give me a balsam which will save 
me from death. You will easily find the way, because 
my footprints scorched the soil as I left Paradise. Fol- 
low my blackened traces, and they will conduct you to 
the gate whence I was expelled." Seth hastened to Para- 
dise. The way was barren, vegetation was scanty and of 
sombre colors ; over all lay the black prints of his father^s 
and mother's feet. Presently the walls surrounding Para- 

* Tertia Decisio, c. liv. ; ed. Liebrecht, p. 25. 



The Legend of the Cross. 307 

dise appeared. Around them nature revived, the earth 
was covered with verdure and dappled with flowers. The 
air vibrated with exquisite music. Seth was dazzled with 
the beauty which surrounded him, and he walked on 
forgetful of his mission. Suddenly there flashed before 
him a wavering line of fire, upright, like a serpent of light 
continuously quivering. It was the flaming sword in the 
hand of the Cherub who guarded the gate. As Seth drew 
nigh, he saw that the angel's wings were expanded so as 
to block the door. He prostrated himself before the 
Cherub, unable to utter a word. But the celestial being 
read in his soul, better than a mortal can read a book, the 
words which were there impressed, and he said, "The 
time of pardon is not yet come. Four thousand years 
must roll away ere the Redeemer shall open the gate to 
Adam, closed by his disobedience. But as a token of 
future pardon, the wood whereon redemption shall be 
won shall grow from the tomb of thy father. Behold 
what he lost by his transgression ! " 

At these words the angel swung open the great portal 
of gold and fire, and Seth looked in. 

He beheld a fountain, clear as crystal, sparklmg like 
silver dust, playing in the midst of the garden, and gush- 
ing forth in four living streams. Before this mystic foun- 



3o8 The Legend of the Cross, 

tain grew a mighty tree, with a trunk of vast bulk, and 
thickly branched, but destitute of bark and foliage. 
Around the bole was wreathed a frightful serpent or 
caterpillar, which had scorched the bark and devoured 
the leaves. Beneath the tree was a precipice. Seth 
beheld the roots of the tree in Hell. There Cain was 
endeavoring to grasp the roots, and clamber up them into 
Paradise ; but they laced themselves around the body and 
limbs of the fratricide, as the threads of a spider's web 
entangle a fly, and the fibres of the tree penetrated the 
body of Cain as though they were endued with life. 

Horror-struck at this appalling spectacle, Seth raised 
his eyes to the summit of the tree. Now all was changed. 
The tree had grown till its branches reached heaven. The 
boughs were covered with leaves, flowers, and fruit. But 
the fairest fruit was a little babe, a living sun, who seemed 
to be listening to the songs of seven white doves who 
circled round his head. A woman, more lovely than the 
moon, bore the child in her arms. 

Then the Cherub shut the door, and said, "I give thee 
now three seeds taken from that tree. When Adam is 
dead, place these three seeds in thy father's mouth, and 
bury him." 

So Seth took the seeds and returned to his father. 



The Legend of the Cross* 309 

Adam was glad to hear what his son told him, and he 
praised God. On the third day after the return of Seth 
he died. Then his son buried him in the skins of beasts 
which God had given him for a covering, and his sepulchre 
was on Golgotha. In course of time three trees grew 
from the seeds brought from Paradise : one was a cedar, 
another a cypress, and the third a pine. They grew with 
prodigious force, thrusting their boughs to right and left. 
It was with one of these boughs that Moses performed 
his miracles in Egypt, brought water out of the rock^ 
and healed those whom the serpents slew in the desert. 
: After a while the three trees touched one another, 
then began to incorporate and confound their several 
natures in a single trunk. It was beneath this tree that 
David sat when he bewailed his sins. 

In the time of Solomon, this was the noblest of the 
trees of Lebanon ; it surpassed all in the forests of King 
Hiram, as a monarch surpasses those who crouch at his 
feet. Now, when the son of David erected his palace, 
he cut down this tree to convert it into the main pillar 
supporting his roof. But all in vain. The column refused 
to answer the purpose: it was at one time too long, at 
another too short. Surprised at this resistance, Solomon 
lowered the walls of his palace, to suit the beam ; but at 



3IO The Legend of the Cross, 

once it shot up and pierced the roof, like an arrow driven 
through a piece of canvas, or a bird recovering its liberty. 
Solomon, enraged, cast the tree over Cedron, that all 
might trample on it as they crossed the brook. 

There the Queen of Sheba found it, and she, recog- 
nizing its virtue, had it raised. Solomon then buried it. 
Some while after, the king dug the pool of Bethesda on 
the spot. This pond at once acquired miraculous prop- 
erties, and healed the sick who flocked to it. The water 
owed its virtues to the beam which lay beneath it. 

When the time of the Crucifixion of Christ drew nigh, 
this wood rose to the surface, and was brought out of the 
water. The executioners, when seeking a suitable beam 
to serve for the cross, found it, and of it made the instru- 
ment of the death of the Saviour. After the Crucifixion 
it was buried on Calvary, but it was found by the Empress 
Helena, mother of Constantine the Great, deep in the 
ground with two others. May 3, 328; Christ's was distin- 
guished from those of the thieves by a sick woman being 
cured by touching it. This same event is, however, 
ascribed by a Syriac MS. in the British Museum, unques- 
tionably of the 5th century, to Protonice, wife of the 
Emperor Claudius. It was carried away by Chosroes, 
king of Persia, on the plundering of Jerusalem ; but was 



The Legend of the Cross. 311 

recovered by Heraclius, who defeated him in battle, 
Sept. 14, 615 ; a day that has ever since been com- 
memorated as the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross. 

Such is the Legend of the Cross, one of the wildest 
of mediaeval fancies. It is founded, though uncon- 
sciously, on this truth, that the Cross was a sacred sign 
long before Christ died upon it. 

And how account for this? 

For my own part, I see no difficulty in believing that 
it formed a portion of the primaeval religion, traces of 
which exist over the whole world, among every people ; 
that trust in the Cross was a part of the ancient faith 
which taught men to believe in a Trinity, in a War in 
Heaven, a Paradise from which man Yell, a Flood, and a 
Babel ; a faith which was deeply impressed with a con- 
viction that a Virgin should conceive and bear a son, that 
the Dragon's head should be bruised, and that through 
Shedding of blood should come Remission. The use of 
the cross, as a symbol of life and regeneration through 
water, is as widely spread over the world as the belief in 
the ark of Noah. May be, the shadow of the Cross was 
cast further back into the night of ages, and fell on a 
wider range of' country, than we are aware of. 
, It is more than a coincidence that Osiris by the cross 



31 2 The Legend of the Cross. 

should give life eternal to the Spirits of the Just; that 
with the cross Thorr should smite the head of the Great 
Serpent, and bring to life those who were slain; that 
beneath the cross the Muysca mothers should lay their 
babes, trusting by that sign to secure them from the power 
of evil spirits ; that with that symbol to protect them, the 
ancient people of Northern Italy should lay them down 
in the dust. 



IT will be remembered that, on the giving of the law 
from Sinai, Moses was bidden erect to God an altar ; 
" Thou shalt not build it of hewn stone, for if thou lift up 
thy tool upon it, thou hast polluted it " (Exod. xx. 25). 
And later : " There shalt thou build an altar unto the 
Lord thy God, an altar of stones : thou shalt not lift up 
any iron tool upon them" (Deut. xxvii. 6). Such an 
altar was raised by Joshua after the passage of Jordan : 
" An altar of whole stones, over which no man hath lift 
up any iron'* (Joshua viii. 31). 

When King Solomon erected his glorious temple, " the 
house, when it was in building, was built of stone made 
ready before it was brought thither : so that there was 
neither hammer, nor axe, nor any tool of iron, heard in 
the house while it was in building " ( i Kings vi. 7) . And 
the reason of the prohibition of iron in the construction 
of the altar is given in the Mischna — iron is used to 
shorten life, the altar to prolong it (Middoth 3, 4). Iron 



314 Schamir. 

is the metal used in war ; with it, says Pliny, we do the 
best and worst acts : we plough fields, we build houses, 
we cleave rocks ; but with it, also, come strife and blood- 
shed and rapine. The altar was the symbol of peace 
made between God and man, and therefore the metal 
employed in war was forbidden to be used in its erection. 
The idea was extended by Solomon to the whole temple. 
It is not said that iron was not used in the preparation of 
the building stones, but that no tool was heard in the 
fitting together of the parts. 

That temple symbolized the Church triumphant in 
heaven when the stones, hewn afar off in the quarries 
of this world, are laid noiselessly in their proper place, 
so that the whole, " fitly framed together, groweth unto a 
holy temple in the Lord ; " an idea well expressed in the 
ancient hymn ^' Angulare fundamentum : " — 

"Many a blow and biting sculpture 
Polish'd well those stones elect, 
In their places well compacted 
By the heavenly Architect." 

Nothing in the sacred narrative implies any miraculous 
act having been accomplished in this erecting a temple 
of stones hewn at a distance ; and in the account of the 
building of the temple in the Book of Chronicles no 



Schamir. 315 

reference is made to the circumstance, which would have 
been the case had any marvel attended it. 

The Septuagint renders the passage, 6 qXko^ Xldois 
aKpoTojjLOLs dpyols (OKodofjifjdrj, The word aKpoTOfios is used 
by the LXX in three places, for ir:^72^n, which is rough, 
hard, unhewn stone. Where it says in Deuteronomy 
(viii. 15), "Who brought thee 'forth water out of the 
rock of flint," the LXX use aKporofios. Where the Psalm- 
ist says, "Who turned the flint-stone into a springing 
well " (Ps. cxiv. 8), and Job, " He putteth His hand upon 
the rock " (xxviii. 9), they employ aKporop^os, So, too, in 
the Book of Wisdom (xi. 4), " Water wac given them out 
of the flinty rock," e/c nerpas aKpoTOfiov, which is paralleled 
by "the hard stone," \l6os o-KXrjpos. And in Ecclesiasti- 
cus, Ezekias is said to have " digged the hard rock with 

iron," a>pv^€ (Tibrjpco aKporofiov (xlviii. 1 7). 

Al6os aKpoTop^os is, therefore, not a hewn stone, but one 
with natural angles, unhewn. Thus Suidas uses the ex- 
pression, o-Kkrjpa Koi arprjTos, and Theodotion calls the 
sharp stone used by Zipporah in circumcising her son, 
aKpoTop^os, The dpyols of the LXX signifies also the rough 
natural condition of the stones. Thus Pausanias speaks 
of gold and silver in unfused, rough lumps as apyvpos kol 
xpv(r6s dpyos. Apparently, then, the LXX, in saying that 



3i6 Schamir. 

the temple was erected of aKpoTOfiots dpyols, express their 
meaning that the stones were unhewn and in their natural 
condition, so that the skill of Solomon was exhibited in 
putting together stones which had never been subjected 
to the tool. This is also the opinion of Josephus, who 
says, " The whole edifice of the temple is, with great art, 
compacted of rough stones, ck \l6(ou aKporoiicop, which 
have been fitted into one another quite harmoniously, 
without the work of hammer or any other builder's tool 
being observable, but the whole fits together without the 
use of these, and the fitting seems to be rather one of 
free will than of force through mechanical means." And 
therein lay the skill of the king, for the unshapen blocks 
were pieced together as though they had been carefully 
wrought to their positions. And Procopius says that the 
temple was erected of unhewn stones, as it was forbidden 
of God to lift iron upon them, but that, nevertheless, they 
all fitted into one another. We see in these passages 
tokens of the marvellous having been supposed to attach 
to a work which was free from any miraculous interposi- 
tion. But at this point fable did not stop. Upon the 
carrying away of the Jews to Babylon, they were brought 
into contact with a flood of Iranian as well as Chaldaean 
myths, and adopted them without hesitation. 



Sckamir, 317 

Around Solomon accumulated the fables which were 
related of Dschemschid and other Persian heroes, and 
were adopted by the Jews as legends of native produc- 
tion. It was not sufficient that Solomon should have 
skilfully pieced together the rough stones : he was sup- 
posed to have hewn them by supernatural means, without 
the tool of iron. 

As Solomon, thus ran the tale, was about to build the 
temple without the use of iron, his wise men drew his 
attention to the stones of the high priest's breastplate, 
which had been cut and polished by something harder 
than themselves. This was schamir, which was able to 
cut where iron would not bite. Thereupon Solomon sum- 
moned the spirits to inform him of the whereabouts of 
this substance. They told him schamir was a worm of 
the size of a barley corn, but so powerful that the hardest 
flint could not resist him. The spirits advised Solomon 
to seek Asmodeus, king of the devils, who could give him 
further information. When Solomon inquired where As- 
modeus was to be met with, they replied that, on a distant 
mountain, he had dug a huge cistern, out of which he 
daily drank. Solomon then sent Benaiah with a chain, on 
which was written the magic word "schem hammpho- 
rasch," a fleece of wool, and a skin of wine. Benaiah, 



3i8 Schamir. 

having arrived at the cistern of Asmodeus, undermined it, 
and let the water off by a Httle hole, which he then ^ 
plugged up with the wool ; after which he filled the pit 
with wine. The evil spirit came, as was his wont, to the 
cistern, and scented the wine. Suspecting treachery, he 
refused to drink, and retired ; but at length, impelled by 
thirst, he drank, and, becoming intoxicated, was chained 
by Benaiah and carried away. Benaiah had no willing 
prisoner to conduct : Asmodeus plunged and kicked, up- 
setting trees and houses. In this manner he came near a 
hut in which lived a widow, and when she besought him 
not to injure her poor Httle cot, he turned aside, and, in 
so doing, broke his leg. "Rightly," said the devil, "is it 
written : ^ a soft tongue breaketh the bone ! ' " (Prov. xxv. 
15). And a diable boiteux he has ever remained. When 
in the presence of Solomon, Asmodeus was constrained to 
behave with greater decorum. Schamir, he told Solomon, 
was the property of the Prince of the Sea, and that prince 
intrusted none with the mysterious worm except the 
moor-hen, which had taken an oath of fidelity to him. 
The moor-hen takes the schamir with her to the tops 
of the mountains, splits them, and injects seeds, which 
grow and cover the naked rocks. Wherefore the bird is 
called Naggar Tura, the mountain-carver. If Solomon 



Schamir. 319 

desired to possess himself of the worm, he must find the 
nest of the moor-hen, and cover it with a plate of glass, 
so that the mother-bird could not get at her young with- 
out breaking the glass. She would seek schamir for the 
purpose, and the worm must be obtained from her. 

Accordingly, Benaiah, son of Jehoiada, sought the nest 
of the bird, and laid over it a piece of glass. When the 
moor-hen came, and could not reach her young, she flew 
away and fetched schamir, and placed it on the glass. 
Then Benaiah shouted, and so terrified the bird, that she 
dropped the worm and flew away. Benaiah by this means 
obtained possession of the coveted schamir, and bore it 
to Solomon. But the moor-hen was so distressed at 
having broken her oath to the Prince of the Sea that she 
slew herself.* According to another version, Solomon 
went to his fountain, where he found the daemon Sackar, 
whom he captured by a ruse, and chained down. Solo- 
mon pressed his ring to the chains, and Sackar uttered a 
cry so shrill that the earth quaked. 

Quoth Solomon, "Fear not; I shall restore you to 
liberty if you will tell me how to burrow noiselessly after 
minerals and metals." 

* Gittin, Ixviii. Eisenmenger : Neu-Entdecktes Judenthum. 
Konigsberg, 17 11, i. p. 351. 



320 Sckamir, 

"I know not how to do so," answered the Jin; "but 
the raven can tell you : place over her eggs a sheet 
of crystal, and you shall see how the mother will 
break it." 

Solomon did so, and the mother brought a stone and 
shattered the crystal. " Whence got you that stone ? " 
asked Solomon. 

" It is the stone Samur," answered the raven ; " it 
comes from a desert in the uttermost east." So the 
monarch sent some giants to follow the raven, and bring 
him a suitable number of stones." * 

According to a third version, the bird is an eagle, 
and schamir is the Stone of Wisdom. 

Possessed of this schamir, Solomon wrought the stones 
for his temple. 

Rabbinical fantasy has developed other myths con- 
cerning this mysterious force, resident in worm or stone. 
On the second day of Creation were created the well by 
which Jacob met Rebecca, the manna which fed the 
Israelites, the wonder-working rod of Moses, the ass 
which spake to Balaam, and schamir, the means whereby 
without iron tool Solomon was to build the House of God. 

* Collin de Plancy : Legendes de TAncien Test. Paris, 1861, 
p. 280. 



Sckamir. 321 

Schamir is not in early rabbinical fable a worm ; the trea- 
tise Sota gives the first indication of its being regarded as 
something more than a stone, by terming it a " creature," 
J^n'^nn. "Our Rabbis have taught us that schamir is 
a creature as big as a barley-corn, created in the hexa- 
meron, and that nothing can resist it. How is it pre- 
served ? It is wrapped in a wisp of wool, and kept in a 
leaden box full of small grains like barley-meal." * After 
the building of the temple schamir vanished. 

The story passed to the Greeks, -^lian relates of the 
eno^ or hoopoe, that a bird had once a nest in an old 
wall, in which there was a rent. The proprietor plastered 
over this crack. The hoopoe finding that she could not 
get to her young, flew away in quest of a plant Troa, 
which she brought, and applied to the plaster, which at 
once gave way, and admitted her to her young. Then 
she went forth to seek food, and the man again stopped 
up the hole, but once more the hoopoe removed the 
obstacle by the same means. And this took place a third 
time again. t What ^lian relates of the hoopoe, Pliny 
tells of the woodpecker. This bird, he says, brings up its 
young in holes ; and if the entrance to them be plugged 

* Sota, xlviii. 8. t iElian, Hist. Animal, iii. 26. 

21 



322 Schamir. 

up never so tight, the bird is able to make the plug burst 
out. 

In the English Gesta Romanorum is the following 
story. There lived in Rome a noble emperor, Diocletian 
by name, who loved the virtue of compassion above every 
thing. Therefore he desired to know which of all the 
birds was most kindly affectioned towards its young. One 
day, the Emperor was wandering in the forest, when he 
lit upon the nest of a great bird called ostrich, in which 
was the mother with her young. The king took the nest 
along with the poults to his palace, and put it into a glass 
vessel. This the mother-bird saw, and, unable to reach 
her little ones, she returned into the wood, and after an 
absence of three days came back with a worm in her 
beak, called thumare. This she dropped on the glass, 
and by the power of the worm, the glass was shivered, 
and the young flew away after their mother. When the 
Emperor saw this, he highly commended both the affec- 
tion and the sagacity of the ostrich. On which we may 
remark, that a portion of that sagacity was wanting to 
those who applied the myth to that bird which of all 
others is singularly deficient in the qualities with which 
Diocletian credited it. Similar stories are told by Vincent 
of Beauvais in his " Historical Mirror," * and by gossip- 
* Vincent B^Hov , Spec. Nat. 20, 170. 



Schamh\ - 323 

ing, fable-loving, and delightful Gervase of Tilbury.* The 
latter says that Solomon cut the stones of the temple with 
the blood of a little worm called thamir, which when 
sprinkled on the marble, made it easy to split. And the 
way in which Solomon obtained the worm was this. He 
had an ostrich, whose chick he put in a glass bottle. 
Seeing this, the ostrich ran to the desert, and brought the 
worm, and with its blood fractured the vessel. " And in 
our time, in the reign of Pope Alexander III., when I was 
a boy, there was found at Rome, a vial full of milky liquid, 
which, when sprinkled on any kinds of stone, made them 
receive such sculpture as the hand of the graver was 
wont to execute. It was a vial discovered in a most 
ancient palace, the matter and art of which was a subject 
of wonder to the Roman people.'* 

Gervase drew from Comestor (Regum lib. iii. c. 5). 

*• If you wish to burst chains," says Albertus Magnus,! 
"go into the wood, and look for a woodpecker's nest, 
where there are young; climb the tree, and choke the 
mouth of the nest with any thing you like. As soon as 
she sees you do this, she flies off for a plant, which she 
lays on the stoppage ; this bursts, and the plant falls to 

* Gervasii Tilberiensis Otia Imp., ed. Liebrecht. Hanov. 1856, 
p. 48. 

t De Mirab. Mundi. Argent. 1601, p. 225. 



324 Schamir. 

the ground under the tree, where you must have a clothl 
spread for receiving it." But then, says Albertus, this is| 
a fancy of the Jews.* 

Conrad von Megenburg relates : " There is a bird which 
in Latin is called merops, but which we in German term 
Bomheckel (i. e. Baumhacker), which nests in high trees, f 
and when one covers its children with something to im- 
pede the approach of the bird, it brings a herb, and holds 
it over the obstacle, and it gives way. The plant is called 
herba meropis^ or woodpecker-plant, and is called in magi- 
cal books chora.^^ f ^ 

In Normandy, the swallow knows how to find upon the 
sea-beach a pebble which has the marvellous power of 
restoring sight to the blind. The peasants tell of a certain 
way of obtaining possession of this stone. You must put 
out the eyes of a swallow's young, whereupon the mother- 
bird will immediately go in quest of the stone. When 
she has found it and applied it, she will endeavor to make 
away with the talisman, that none may discover it. But 
if one has taken the precaution to spread a piece of scar- 
let cloth below the nest, the swallow, mistaking it for fire, 
will drop the stone upon it. 

* De Animalibus. Mantua, T479, ^I^- P^g* 
t Apud Mone, Anzeiger, viii. p. 614. 



SckamzK 325 

I met with the story in Iceland. There the natives tell 
that there is a stone of such wondrous power, that the 
possessor can walk invisible, can, at a wish, provide him- 
self with as much stock-fish and corn-brandy as he may 
desire, can raise the dead, cure disease, and break bolts 
and bars. In order to obtain this prize, one must hard- 
boil an tgg from the raven's nest, then replace it, and 
secrete oneself till the mother-bird, finding one of her 
eggs resist all her endeavors to infuse warmth into it, flies 
off and brings a black pebble in her beak, with which she 
touches the boiled tgg, and restores it to its former con- 
dition. At this moment she must be shot, and the stone 
be secured. 

In this form of the superstition schamir has the power 
of giving life. This probably connects it with those sto- 
ries, so rife in the middle ages, of birds or weasels, which 
were able to restore the dead to life by means of a mys- 
terious plant. Avicenna relates in his eighth book, " Of 
Animals,'' that it was related to him by a faithful old man, 
that he had seen two little birds squabbling, and that one 
was overcome ; it therefore retired and ate of a certain 
herb, then it returned to the onslaught ; which when the 
old man observed frequently, he took away the herb, and 
when the bird came and found the plant gone, it set 



326 Schamir, 

up a great cry and died. And this plant was ladua 
agrestis. 

In Fouque's " Sir Elidoc," a little boy Amyot is watch- 
ing by a dead lady laid out in the church, when " suddenly 
I heard a loud cry from the child. I looked up, a little 
creature glided by me ; the shepherd^s staff of the boy 
flew after it; the creature lay dead, stretched on the 
ground by the blow. It was a weasel. . . . Presently 
there came a second weasel, as if to seek his comrade, 
and when he found him dead, a mpurnful scene began ; 
he touched him as if to say, ' Wake up, wake up, let us 
play together ! ' And when the other little animal lay 
dead and motionless, the Hving one sprang back from him 
in terror, and then repeated the attempt again and again, 
many times. Its bright little eyes shone sadly, as if they 
were full of tears. The sorrowful creature seemed as 
though it suddenly bethought itself of something. It 
erected its ears, it looked round with its bright eyes, and 
then swiftly darted away. And before Amyot and I could 
ask each other of the strange sight, the little animal re- 
turned again", bearing in its mouth a root, a root to which 
grew a red flower ; I had never before seen such a flower 
blowing ; I made a sign to Amyot, and we both remained 
motionless. The weasel came up quickly, and laid the 



Schamir, 327 

root and the flower gently on its companion's mouth ; the 
creature, but now stiff in death, stretched itself, and sud- 
denly sprang up, with the root still in its mouth. I called 
to Amyot, ' The root ! take it, take it, but do not kill ! ' 
Again he flung his stafl*, but so dexterously that he killed 
neither of the weasels, nor even hurt them. The root 
of life and the red blossoms lay on the ground before me, 
and in my power. '* With this, naturally enough, the lady 
who is speaking restores the corpse to life. Sir Elidoc is 
founded on a Breton legend, the Lai d'Eliduc of Marie 
de France ; but another tale from the same country makes 
the flower yellow ; it is a marigold, which, when touched 
on a certain morning by the bare foot of one who has a 
pure heart, gives the power to understand the language 
of birds.* This is the same story as that of Polyidus and 
Glaucus. Polyidus observed a serpent stealing towards 
the corpse of the young prince. He slew it ; then came 
another serpent, and finding its companion dead, it 
fetched a root by which it restored life to the dead 
serpent. Polyidus obtairied possession of the plant, and 
therewith revived Glaucus. f In the Greek romance of 
Rhodante and Dosicles is an incident of similar char- 

* Bode, Volksmahrchen a. d. Bretagne. Leipz. 1847, p. 6. 
t Apollodorus, ii. 3. 



328 Schamir. 

acter. Rhodante swallows a poisoned goblet of wine, 
and lies as one dead, deprived of sense and motion. In 
the meanwhile, Dosicles and Cratander are chasing wild 
beasts in the forest. There they find a wounded bear, 
which seeks a certain plant, and, rolling upon it, recovers 
health and vigor instantaneously. The root of this herb 
was white, its flowers of a rosy hue, attached to a stalk 
of purplish tinge. Dosicles picked the herb, and with 
it returned to the house where he found Rhodante appar- 
ently dead ; with the wondrous plant he, however, was 
able to restore her. The same story is told in Germany, 
in Lithuania, among the modern Greeks and ancient 
Scandinavians. 

Germany teems with stories of the marvellous proper- 
ties of the Luckflower. 

A man chances to pluck a beautiful flower, which in 
most instances is blue, and this he puts in his breast, or 
in his hat. Passing along a mountain side, he sees the 
rocks gape before him, and entering, he sees a beautiful 
lady, who bids him help himself freely to the gold which 
is scattered on all sides in profusion. He crams the glit- 
tering nuggets into his pockets, and is about to leave, 
when she calls after him, ^^ Forget not the best ! '* Think- 
ing that she means him to take more, he feels his crammed 



Schamir. 329 

pockets, and finding that he has nothing to reproach 
himself with in that respect, he seeks the light of day, 
entirely forgetting the precious blue flower which had 
opened to him the rocks, and which has dropped on the 
ground. 

As he hurries through the doorway, the rocks close 
upon him with a thunder-crash and cut off his heel. 
The mountain-side is thenceforth closed to him for ever. 

Once upon a time a shepherd was driving his flock 
over the Ilsenstein, when, wearied with his tramp, he 
leaned upon his staff. Instantly the mountain opened, 
for in that staff was the " Springwort." Within he saw 
the Princess Use, who bade him fill his pockets with 
gold. The shepherd obeyed, and was going away, when 
the princess exclaimed, " Forget not the best ! " allud- 
ing to his staff, which lay against the wall. But he, 
misunderstanding her, took more gold, and the moun- 
tain, clashing together, severed him in twain. In some 
versions of the story, it is the pale blue flower — 

" The blue flower, which — Bramins say — 
Blooms nowhere but in Paradise " — 

(Lalla Rookh) 

which exclaims in feeble, piteous tone, "Forget-me- 
not ! " but its little cry is unheeded. 



330 Schamir, 

Thus originated the name of the beautiful little 
flower. When this story was forgotten, a romantic 
fable was invented to account for the peculiar appella- 
tion. 

In the story of Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, it is 
a word, "sesame," which makes the rocks part, and 
gives admission to the treasures within; and it is ob- 
livion of the magic word which brings destruction upon 
the luckless wretch within. But sesame is the name of 
a well-known eastern ^^X^xii^ sesamum orientale; so that 
probably in the original form of the Persian tale ab- 
sorbed into the Arabian Nights, a flower was employed 
to give admission to the mountain. But classic an- 
tiquity has also its rock-breaking plant, the saxifraga, 
whose tender rootlets penetrate and dissolve the hardest 
stones with a force for which the Ancients were unable 
to account. 

Isaiah, describing the desolation of the vineyard of 
Zion, says that " There shall come up briers and 
thorns " (v. 6), n^'i"' n^tD^I 1^?3ir)i) (vii. 23 : cf. also ix. 17 ; 
X. 17). And, " Upon the land of my people shall come 
up thorns and briers " (xxxii. 13), where 'i'^?3:i5 is com- 
bined with f"ip. The word n^:z5 never stands alone, but 
is always joined with ^"i73'25, which the LXX render 



Schamir, 331 

aKavOa kol ^opTosj the word in the fifth chapter they 
render x^P^os aKavOat ; that in the seventh, x^p^os and 
oLKavOa j SO that x^/oo'os is put for ^^?2in, and aKavda for 
D'ltD' The word in the ninth chapter is aypoio-TLs ^rjpd, 
that in the tenth, wa-el x^P'^^^ '^W ^^W' Upon both 
names the translators are not agreed. Now, this word 
** smiris " is used by Isaiah alone as the name of a 
plant. The smiris, as we have seen, is a stone-breaking 
substance, and the same idea which is rendered in 
Latin by saxifraga is given in the Hebrew word used 
by Isaiah, so that we may take n'^iDI '^"^ly^ to mean 
saxifragra and thorn.'* In the North, we have another 
object, to which are attributed the same properties as to 
the " Springwort " and schamir, and that is the Hand 
of Glory. This is the hand of a man who has been 
hung, and it is prepared in the following manner : wrap 
the hand in a piece of winding-sheet^ drawing it tight, so 
as to squeeze out the little blood which may remain ; 
then place it in an earthenware vessel with saltpetre, salt, 
and long pepper, all carefully and thoroughly powdered. 

* Cassel, Ueber Schamir, in Denkschrift d. Konigl. Akad. der 

Wissenschaften. Erfurt, 1856, p. 76. The Oriental word "smiris'* 

passed into use among the Greeks as the name of the hardest sub- 

tance known, used in polishing stones, and is retained in the 

German " Smirgel," and the English "emery." 



332 Schainir. 

Let it remain a fortnight in this pickle till it is well 
dried, then expose it to the sun in the dog-days, till it isl 
completely parched, or, if the sun be not powerful 
enough, dry it in an oven heated with vervain and fern. 
Next make a candle with the fat of a hung man, virgin- 
wax, and Lapland sesame. Observe the use of this 
herb : the hand of glory is used to hold this candle 
when it is lighted."* Douster Swivel, in the " Antiquary," 
adds, " You do make a candle, and put into de hand 
of glory at de proper hour and minute, with de proper 
ceremonisth ; and he who seeksh for treasuresh shall 
find none at all ! " Southey places it in the hands of 
the enchanter Mohareb, when he would lull to sleep 
Yohak, the giant guardian of the caves of Babylon, 
He — 

" From his wallet drew a human hand, 
Shrivell'd, and dry, and black ; 
And fitting, as he spake, 
A taper in his hold, 
Pursued : ' A murderer on the stake had died ; 
I drove the vulture from his limbs, and lopt 
The hand that did the murder, and drew up 
The tendon strings to close its grasp ; 

And in the sun and wind 
Parch'd it, nine weeks exposed. 
The taper .... But not here the place to impart, 

* Collin de Plancy, Dictionnaire Infernal. Paris, 1818. 



Schmnir. 333 

Nor hast thou undergone the rites 
That fit thee to partake the mystery. 
Look ! it burns clear, but with the air around, 
Its dead ingredients mingle deathliness.' '* * 

Several stories of this terrible hand are related in 
Henderson's " Folklore of the Northern Counties of 
England." I will only quote one, which was told me- 
by a laboring man in the West Riding of Yorkshire, 
and which is the same story as that given by Martin 
Anthony Delrio in his " Disquisitiones Magicae, in 1593, 
and which is printed in the Appendix to that book of M. 
Henderson. 

One dark night, after the house had been closed, 
there came a tap at the door of a lone inn, in the midst 
of a barren moor. 

The door was opened, and-^ there stood without, shiv- 
ering and shaking, a poor beggar, his rags soaked with 
rain, and his hands white with cold. He asked pit- 
eously for a lodging, and it was cheerfully granted him ; 
though there was not a spare bed in the house, he 
might lie along on the mat before the kitchen fire, and 
welcome. 

All in the house went to bed except the servant lassie, 
who from the kitchen could see into the large room 

* Thalaba the Destroyer, book v. 



334 Schamir, 

through a small pane of glass let into the door. When 
every one save the beggar was out of the room, she ob- 
served the man draw himself up from the floor, seat 
himself at the table, extract a brown withered human 
hand from his pocket, and set it upright in the candle- 
stick; he then anointed the fingers, and, applying a 
match to them, they began to flame. Filled with 
horror, the girl rushed up the back stairs, and endeav- 
ored to arouse her master and the men of the house; 
but all in vain, they slept a charmed sleep ; and finding 
all her efforts ineffectual, she hastened downstairs 
again. Looking again through the small window, she 
observed the fingers of the hand flaming, but the thumb 
gave no light : this was because one of the inmates of 
the house was not asleep.^ The beggar began collect- 
ing all the valuables of the house into a large sack — 
no lock withstood the application of the flaming hand. 
Then, putting it down, the man entered an adjoining 
apartment. The moment he was gone, the girl rushed 
in, and seizing the hand, attempted to extinguish the 
quivering yellow flames, which wavered at the fingers' 
ends. She blew at them in vain ; she poured some 
drops from a beer-jug over them, but that only made 
the fingers burn the brighter ; she cast some water upon 



Schaniir. 335 

them, but still without extinguishing the light. As a 
last resource, she caught up a jug of milk, and dashing 
it over the four lambent flames, they went out imme- 
diately. 

Uttering a piercing cry, she rushed to the door of the 
room the beggar had entered, and locked it. The 
whole house was aroused, and the thief was secured 
and hung. 

We must not forget Tom Ingoldsby^s rendering of a 
similar legend : — 

** Open, lock, 

To the Dead Man's knock ! 

Fly, bolt, and bar, and band I 

Nor move, nor swerve, 

Joint, muscle, or nerve. 
At the spell of the Dead Man's hand ! 
Sleep, all who sleep ! — Wake, all who wake ! 
But be as the dead for the Dead Man's sake ! 

"Now lock, nor bolt, nor bar avails, 
Nor stout oak panel thick-studded with nails. 
Heavy and harsh the hinges creak, 
Though they had been oil'd in the course of the week. 
The door opens wide as wide may be, 
And there they stand, 
That murderous band. 
Lit by the light of the Glorious Hand, 
By one ! — by two ! — by three ! " 

But, instead of pursuing the fable through its further 
ramifications, let us apply the schamir of comparative 



336 Schamir, 

mythology to the myth itself, and see whether before it 
the bolts do not give way, and the great doors of the 
cavern of mysteries expand, and discover to us the 
origin of the superstitious belief in this sea-prince's 
worm, the stone of wisdom, sesame, forget-me-not, or 
the hand of glory. 

What are its effects ? 

It bursts locks, and shatters stones, it opens in the 
mountains the hidden treasures hitherto concealed from 
men, or it paralyzes, lulling into a magic sleep, or, 
again, it restores to life. ■ 

I believe the varied fables relate to one and the 
same object — and that, the lightning. 

But what is the bird which bears schamir, the worm 
or stone which shatters rocks ? It is the storm-cloud, 
which in many a mythology of ancient days was sup- 
posed to be a mighty bird. In Greek iconography, 
Zeus, " the aether in his moist arms embracing the 
earth," as Euripides describes him, is armed with the 
thunderbolt, and accompanied by the eagle, a symbol of 

the cloud. 

" The refulgent heaven above, 
Which all men call, unanimously, Jove," * 

* Cicero, De N. Deorum xvi. 



Schamir, 337 

has for its essential attributes the cloud and its bolt, 
and when the aether was represented under human form, 
the cloud was given shape as a bird. It is the same 
storm-cloud which as " blood-thirsting eagle " banquets 
its "full on the black viands of the liver" of Prome- 
theus. The same cloud in its fury is symbolized by the 
Phorcidae with their flashing eye and lightning tooth — 

irph^ TopyoveLa iredia KLcdifjvrjSf tva. 
at ^opKides vaiovcn drjvaial KOpai 

rpels KVKv6fM0p(f)0Ly KOLVOV bjULfl eKTTffJL^Paif 

ixovbhovres, ds oiid* tjXlos 7rpocrdepK€TaL 

CLKTCaLV, Ovd' 7] l/VKT€pOS fJL^PT] TTOtL 

(^SCH. From,)^ 

and also by the ravening harpies. In ancient Indian 
mythology, the delicate white cirrus cloud drifting over- 
head was a fleeting swan, and so it was as well in the 
creed of the Scandinavian, whilst the black clouds 
were ravens coursing over the earth, and returning to 
whisper the news in the ear of listening Odin. The 
rushing vapor is the roc of the Arabian Nights, which 
broods over its great luminous egg, the sun, and which 
haunts the sparkling valley of diamonds, the starry sky. 
The resemblance traced between bird and cloud is not 
far fetched : it recurs to the modern poet as it did to 
the Psalmist, when he spoke of the " wings of the wind." 



338 Schamir, 

If the cloud was supposed to be a great bird, the light- 
nings were regarded as writhing worms or serpents in 
its beak. These fiery serpents, kXiKiai ypa/AjLtoctSws 
cjicpofxcvot, are believed in to this day by the Canadian 
Indians, who call the thunder their hissing. It was 
these heavenly reptiles which were supposed by the 
Druids to generate the sun, the famous anguineum so 
coveted and so ill comprehended. The thunderbolt, 
shattering all it struck, was regarded as the stone 
dropped by the cloud-bird. A more forced resemblance 
is that supposed to exist between the lightning and a 
heavenly flower, blue, or yellow, or red, and yet there is 
evidence, upon which I cannot enter here, that so it 
was regarded. 

The lightning-flashing cloud was also supposed to be 
a flaming hand. The Greek placed the forked dart in 

the hand of Zeus — 

" rubente 
Dextera sacras jaculatus arces ; " 

and the ancient Mexican symbolized the sacrificial fire 
by a blood-red hand impressed on his sanctuary walls. 
The idea may have been present in the mind of the ser- 
vant of Elijah when he told his master that he saw from 
the top of Carmel rising " A little cloud out of the sea, 



Schamir. 339 

like a mail's hancf. And it came to pass, that the 
heaven was black with clouds and wind, and there was 
a great rain" (i Kings xviii. 44). In Finnish and Es- 
thonian mythology, the cloud is a little man with a 
copper hand, who, rising from the water, becomes a 
giant. 

The black cloud with the lambent flames issuing 
from it was the original of the magical hand of glory. 

The effects produced by the lightning are differently 
expressed. As shattering the rocks, schamir is easily 
intelligible. It is less so as giving access to the hidden 
treasures of the mountains. The ancient Aryan had 
the same name for cloud and mountain. To him the 
piles of vapor on the horizon were so like Alpine ranges, 
that he had but one word whereby to designate both. 
These great mountains of heaven were opened by the 
lightning. In the sudden flash he beheld the dazzling 
splendor within, but only for a moment, and then, with 
a crash, the celestial rocks closed again. Believing 
these vaporous piles to contain resplendent treasures of 
which partial glimpse was obtained by mortals in a 
momentary gleam, tales were speedily formed, relating 
the adventures of some who had succeeded in entering 
these treasure-mountains. The plant of life, brought 



340 Schamir, 

by weasel or serpent, restores life to one who was dead. 
This myth was forged in Eastern lands, where the earth 
apparently dies from a protracted drought. Then 
comes the cloud. The lightning flash reaches the 
barren, dead, and thirsty land ; forth gush the waters 
of heaven, and the parched vegetation bursts once 
more into the vigor of life, restored after suspended 
animation. It is the dead and parched vegetation 
which is symbolized by Glaucus, and the earth still and 
without the energy of life which is represented by the 
lady in the Lai d'Eliduc. This reviving power is attrib- 
uted in mythology to the rain as well. In Sclavonic 
myths, it is the water of life which restores the dead 
earth, a water brought by a bird from the depths of a 
gloomy cave. A prince has been murdered, — that is, 
the earth is dead ; then comes the eagle bearing a vial 
of the reviving water — the cloud with the rain ; it 
sprinkles the corpse with the precious drops, and life 
returns."^ 

But the hand of glory has a very different property 
— it paralyzes. In this it resembles the Gorgon's head 
or the basilisk. The head of Medusa, with its flying 

* Compare with this the Psyche in *'The Golden Ass/' and the 
Fair One with the Golden Locks of the Countess d'Aulnay. 



Schamir. 341 

serpent locks, is unquestionably the storm-cloud ; and 
the basilisk which strikes dead with its eye is certainly 
the same. The terror inspired by the outburst of the 
thunder-stprm is expressed in fable by the paralyzing 
effect of the eye of the cockatrice, the exhibition of the 
Gorgon^s countenance, and the waving of the glorious 
hand. 

Strained as some of these explanations may seem, 
they are nevertheless true. We, with our knowledge of 
the causes producing meteorological phenomena, are 
hardly able to realize the extravagance of the theories 
propounded by the ignorant to account for them. 

How Finn cosmogonists could have believed the 
earth and heaven to be made out of a severed egg, the 
upper concave shell representing heaven, the yolk 
being earth, and the crystal surrounding fluid the cir- 
cumambient ocean, is to us incomprehensible : and yet it 
remains a fact that so they did regard them. How the 
Scandinavians could have supposed the mountains to 
be the mouldering bones of a mighty Jotun, and the 
earth to be his festering flesh, we cannot conceive : yet 
such a theory was solemnly taught and accepted. How 
the ancient Indians could regard the rain-clouds as cows 
with full udders, milked by the winds of heaven, is be- 



342 Schamir, 

yond our comprehension, and yet their Veda contains 
indisputable testimony to the fact that so they were 
regarded. 

Nonnus Dionysius (v. 163 et seq.) spoke of the moon 
as a luminous white stone, and Democritus regarded the 
stars as Trerpovs. Lucretius considered the sun as a 
wheel (v. 433), and Ovid as a shield — 

" Ipse Dei clypeus, terra cum tollitur ima, 
Mane rubet : terraque rubet, cum conditur ima. 
Candidus in summo . . . ." — (Metam. xv. 192 sq.) 

As late as 1600, a German writer would illustrate a 
thunder-storm destroying a crop of corn by a picture of 
a dragon devouring the produce of the field with his flam- 
ing tongue and iron teeth (Wolfii Memorabil. ii. p. 
505) ; and at the present day children are taught that 
the thunder-crash is the voice of the Almighty. 

The restless mind of man, ever seeking a reason to 
account for the marvels presented to his senses, adopts 
one theory after another, and the rejected explanations 
encumber the memory of nations as myths, the signifi- 
cance of which has been forgotten. 



illehiBiua. 




FROM PUCE CHURCH (GIRONDE). 



EMMERICK, Count of Poitou, was a nobleman of 
great wealth, and eminent for his virtues. He 
had two children, a son named Bertram, and a daughter 
Blaniferte. In the great forest which stretched away in 
all directions around the knoll on which stood the town 
and castle of Poictiers, lived a Count de la Foret, re- 
lated to Emmerick, but poor and with a large family 
Out of compassion for his kinsman, the Count of Poitou 
adopted his youngest son Raymond, a beautiful and 
amiable youth, and made him his constant companion 
in hall and in the chase. One day the Count and his 



344 Melusina, 

retinue hunted a boar in the forest of Colombiers, and 
distancing his servants, Emmerick found himself alone 
in the depths of the wood with Raymond. The boar 
had escaped. Night came on, and the two huntsmen 
lost their way. They succeeded in lighting a fire, and 
were warming themselves over the blaze, when sud- 
denly the boar plunged out of the forest upon the 
Count, and Raymond, snatching up his sword, struck at 
the beast, but the blade glanced ofE and slew the Count. 
A second blow laid the boar at his side. Raymond 
then with horror perceived that his friend and master 
was dead. In despair he mounted his horse and fled, 
not knowing whither he went. 

Presently the boughs of the trees became less inter- 
laced, and the trunks fewer; next moment his horse, 
crashing through the shrubs, brought him out on a 
pleasant glade, white with rime, and illumined by the 
new moon ; in the midst bubbled up a limpid fountain, 
and flowed away over a pebbly floor with a soothing 
murmur. Near the fountain-head sat three maidens in 
glimmering white dresses, with long, waving golden hair, 
and faces of inexpressible beauty. 

Raymond was riveted to the spot with astonishment. 
He believed that he saw a vision of angels, and would have 



Meltisina, 345 

prostrated himself at their feet, had not one of them ad- 
vanced and stayed him. The lady inquired the cause of 
his manifest terror, and the young man, after a slight hesi- 
tation, told her of his dreadful misfortune. She listened 
with attention, and at the conclusion of his story, recom- 
mended him to remount his horse, and gallop out of the 
forest, and return to Poictiers, as though unconscious of 
what had taken place. All the huntsmen had that day 
lost themselves in the wood, and were returning singly, at 
intervals, to the castle, so that no suspicion would attach 
to him. The body of the count would be found, and from 
the proximity of the dead boar, it would be concluded 
that he had fallen before the tusk of the animal, to which 
he had given its death-blow. 

Relieved of his anxiety, Raymond was able to devote 
his attention exclusively to the beauty of the lady who 
addressed him, and found means to prolong the conversa- 
tion till daybreak. He had never beheld charms equal to 
hers, and the susceptible heart of the youth was completely 
captivated by the fair unknown. Before he left her, he ob- 
tained from her a promise to be his. She then told him to 
ask of his kinsman Bertram, as a gift, so mucli ground 
around the fountain where they had met, as could be cov- 
ered by a stag's hide : upon this ground she undertook to 



34^ Melusma. 

erect a magnificent palace. Her name, she told him, was 
Melusina ; she was a water-fay of great power and wealth. 
His she consented to be, but subject to one condition, 
that her Saturdays might be spent in a complete seclusion, 
upon which he should never venture to intrude. 

Raymond then left her, and followed her advice to the 
letter. Bertram, who succeeded his father, readily granted 
the land he asked for, but was not a little vexed when he 
found that, by cutting the hide into threads, Raymond had 
succeeded in making it include a considerable area. 

Raymond then invited the young count to his wedding, 
and the marriage festivities took place, with unusual 
splendor, in the magnificent castle erected by Melusina. 
On the evening of the marriage, the bride, with tears in 
her beautiful eyes, implored her husband on no account 
to attempt an intrusion on her privacy upon Saturdays, for 
such an intrusion must infallibly separate them for ever. 
The enamored Raymond readily swore to strictly observe 
her wishes in this matter. 

Melusina continued to extend the castle, and strengthen 
its fortifications, till the like was not to be seen in all the 
country round. On its completion she named it after 
herself Lusinia, a name which has been corrupted into 
Lusignan, which it bears to this day. 



Melusina, 2>A7 

In course of time, the Lady of Lusignan gave birth 
to a son, who was baptized Urian. He was a strangely 
shaped child : his mouth was large, his ears pendulous ; 
one of his eyes was red, the other green. 

A twelvemonth later she gave birth to another son, 

whom she called Gedes ; he had a face which was scarlet. 

In thank-offering for his birth she erected and endowed 

the convent of Malliers ; and, as a place of residence for 

I her child, built the strong castle of Favent. 

Melusina then bore a third son, who was christened 
, Gyot. He was a fine, handsome child, but one of his 
{ eyes was higher up in his face than the other. For him 
his mother built La Rochelle. 

Her next' son, Anthony, had long claws on his fingers, 
jand was covered with hair; the next again had but a 
^single eye. The sixth was Geoffry with the Tooth, so 
called from a boar's tusk which protruded from his jaw. 
cOther children she had, but all were in some way dis- 
figured and monstrous. 

Years passed, and the love of Raymond for his beauti- 
ful wife never languished. Every Saturday she left him, 
fnd spent the twenty-four hours in the strictest seclusion, 
^ithout her husband thinking of intruding on her privacy. 
The children grew up to be great heroes and illustrious 



348 Melusina. 

warriors. One, Freimund, entered the Church, and be- 
came a pious monk, in the abbey of Malliers. The aged 
Count de la Foret and the brothers of Raymond shared 
in his good fortune, and the old man spent his last 
years in the castle with his son, whilst the brothers 
were furnished with money and servants suitable to their 
rank. 

One Saturday, the old father inquired at dinner after 
his daughter-in-law. Raymond replied that she was not 
visible on Saturdays. Thereupon one of his brothers, 
drawing him aside, whispered that strange gossiping tales | 
were about relative to this sabbath seclusion, and that it | 
behoved him to inquire into it, and set the minds of peo- 
ple at rest. Full of wrath and anxiety, the count rushed 
off to the private apartments of the countess, but found 
them empty. One door alone was locked, and that 
opened into a bath. He looked through the key-hole, 
and to his dismay beheld her in the water, her lower ex- 
tremities changed into the tail of a monstrous fish or 
serpent. 

Silently he withdrew. No word of what he had seen 
passed his lips; it was not loathing that filled his heart, 
but anguish at the thought that by his fault he must lose 
the beautiful wife who had been the charm and glory of 



1 



Melusina, 349 

his life. Some time passed by, however, and Melusina 
gave no token of consciousness that she had been ob- 
served during the period of her transformation. But 
one day news reached the castle that Geoffry with the 
Tooth had attacked the monastery of Malliers, and burned 
it ; and that in the flames had perished Freimund, with 
the abbot and a hundred monks. On hearing of this dis- 
aster, the poor father, in a paroxysm of misery, exclaimed, 
as Melusina approached to comfort him, " Away, odious 
serpent, contaminator of my honorable race ! " 

At these words she fainted ; and Raymond, full of sor- 
row for having spoken thus intemperately, strove to revive 
her. When she came to herself again, with streaming tears 
she kissed and embraced him for the last time. " O hus- 
band ! " she said, " I leave two little ones in their cradle ; 
look tenderly after them*, bereaved of their mother. And 
now farewell for ever ! yet know that thou, and those who 
succeed thee, shall see me hover over this fair castle of 
Lusignan, whenever a new lord is to come." And with a 
long wail of agony she swept from the window, leaving the 
impression of her foot on the stone she last touched. 

The children in arms she had left were Dietrich and 
Raymond. At night, the nurses beheld a glimmering 
figure appear near the cradle of the babes, most like the 



3 so Melusina. 

vanished countess, but from her waist downwards termi- 
nating in a scaly fish-tail enamelled blue and white. At 
her approach the little ones extended their arms and 
smiled, and she took them to her breast and suckled 
them ; but as the gray dawn stole in at the casement, she 
vanished, and the children's cries told the nurses that their 
mother was gone. 

Long was it believed in France that the unfortunate 
Melusina appeared in the air, wailing over the ramparts of 
Lusignan before the death of one of its lords ; and that, 
on the extinction of the family, she was seen whenever a 
king of France was to depart this life. M^zeray informs 
us that he was assured of the truth of the appearance of 
Melusina on the old tower of Lusignan, previous to the 
death of one of her descendants, or of a king of France, by 
people of reputation, and who were not by any means 
credulous. She appeared in a mourning dress, and con- 
tinued for a long time to utter the most heart-rending 
lamentations. 

Brantome, in his eulogium on the Duke of Montpensier, 
who in 1574 destroyed Lusignan, a Huguenot retreat, 
says : — 

" I heard, more than forty years ago, an old veteran 
say, that when the Emperor Charles V. came to France, 



Melusina. 351 

they brought him by Lusignan for the sake of the recrea- 
tion of hunting the deer, which were then in great abun- 
dance in the fine old parks of France ; that he was never 
tired of admiring and praising the beauty, the size, and 
the chef d'oeuvre of that house, built, which is more, by 
such a lady, of whom he made them tell him several fabu- 
lous tales, which are there quite common, even to the 
good old women who washed their linen at the fountains, 
whom Queen Catherine de Medicis, mother of the king, 
would also question and listen to. Some told her that 
they used sometimes to see her come to the fountain, to 
bathe in it, in the form of a most beautiful woman and in 
the dress of a widow. Others said that they used to see 
her, but very rarely, and that on Saturday evening (for in 
that state she did not let herself be seen), bathing, half 
her body being that of a very beautiful lady, the other 
half ending in a snake ; others, that she used to appear 
a- top of the great tower in a very beautiful form, and as a 
snake. Some said, that when any great disaster was to 
come on the kingdom, or a change of reign, or a death, 
or misfortune among her relatives, who were the greatest 
people of France, and were kings, that three days before 
she was heard to cry, with a cry most shrill and terrible, 
three times. 



352 . Mehisina. 

" This is held to be perfectly true. Several persons of 
that place, who have heard it, are positive of it, and hand 
it from father to son ; and say that, even when the siege 
came on, many soldiers and men of honor, who were 
there, affirmed it. But it was when order was given to 
throw down and destroy her castles, that she uttered her 
loudest cries and wails. Since then she has not been 
heard. Some old wives, however, say she has appeared 
to them, but very rarely." * 

In 1387, Jean d' Arras, secretary to the Duke of Berry, 
received orders from his master to collect all information 
attainable with reference to Melusina, probably for the en- 
tertainment of the sister of the duke, the Countess de Bar. 
This he did, making considerable use of a history of the 
mysterious lady, written " by one of the race of Lusinia, 
William de Portenach (qu. Partenope), in Italian." This 
history, if it ever existed, has not come down to us ; the 
work of Jean d^Arras is a complete romance. According 
to him, Helmas, king of Albania (Scotland, or, as the Ger- 
man popular versions have it, Nordland), married a fay 
named Pressina, whom he found singing beside a fountain. 
She became his, after having exacted from him an oath 
ne\'er to visit her during her lying-in. She gave birth to 

* Keightley's Fairy Mythology, i860, pp. 483, 484. 



Melusina. 353 

three little girls at once, Melusina, Melior, and Plantina, 
A san of Helmas by a former wife hurried to his father 
with the joyful news, and the king, oblivious of his prom- 
ise, rushed to his wife and found her bathing her thret 
children. Pressina, on seeing him, exclaimed against his 
forgetfulness, and, taking her babes in her arms, vanished. 
She brought up the daughters until they were fifteen, when 
she unfolded to them the story of their father's breach of 
promise, and Melusina, the youngest, determined on re- 
venge. She, in concert with her sisters, caught King Hel- 
mas and chained him in the heart of a rnountain called 
Avalon, or, in the German books, Brunbelois, in Ncrthu- 
belon, i.e. Northumberland. At this unfilial act the mother 
was so indignant that she sentenced her daughter Melu- 
sina to spend the sabbath in a semi- fish form, till she 
should marry one who would never inquire into what 
became of her on that day. Jean d'Arras relates that 
Serville, who defended Lusignan for the English against 
the Duke de Berry, swore to that prince upon his faith 
and honor, "that three days before the surrender of 
the castle, there entered into his chamber, though the 
doors were shut, a large serpent, enamelled blue a^d 
white, which struck its tail several times against the foot 
of the bed whereon he was lying with his wife, who was 

23 



354 Melusina, 

not at all frightened at it, though he was very considerably 
so ; and that when he seized his sword, the serpent 
changed all at once into a woman, and said to him : 
'How, Serville, you, who have been in so many battles 
and sieges, are you afraid? Know that I am the mis- 
tress of this castle, which I erected, and that soon you 
will have to surrender it ! ' When she had ended these 
words, she resumed her serpent-shape, and glided away 
so swiftly that he could not perceive her." 

Stephan, a Dominican, of the house of Lusignan, de- 
veloped the work of Jean d' Arras, and made the story so 
famous, that the families ' of Luxembourg, Rohan, and 
Sassenaye altered their pedigrees so as to be able to 
claim descent from the illustrious Melusina;* and the 
Emperor Henry VII. felt no little pride in being able 
to number the beautiful and mysterious lady among his 
ancestors. " It does not escape me," writes the chron- 
icler Conrad Vecerius, in his life of that emperor, " to 
report what is related in a little work in the vernacular, 
concerning the acts of a woman, Melyssina, on one day 
of the week becoming a serpent from her middle down- 
wards, whom they reckon among the ancestors of Henry 

* Bullet, Dissertat. sur la Mythologie Frangaise. Paris, 1771, 
pp. 1-32. 



Melusina, 355 

VII. . . . But, as authors relate, that in a certain island 
of the ocean, there are nine Sirens endowed with various 
arts, such, for instance, as changing themselves into any 
shape they like, it is no absurd conjecture to suppose that 
Melyssina came thence." * 

The story became immensely popular in France, in 
Germany, and in Spain, and was printed and reprinted. 
The following are some of the principal early editions 
of it. 

Jean d^ Arras, " Le liure de Melusine en fracoys ; " 
Geneva, 1478. The same, Lyons and Paris, without date ; 
Lyons, 4to, 1500, and again 1544; Troyes, 4to, no date. 
" L'histoire de Melusine fille du roy d'Albanie et de dame 
Pressine, revue et mise en meilleur langage que par cy 
devant;" Lyons, 1597. " Le roman de Melusine, prin- 
cesse de Lusignan, avec l'histoire de Geoffry, surnomm^ 
a la Grand Dent,'' par Nodot; Paris, 1700. An outline 
of the story in the " Bibliotheque des Romans," 1775, 
T. II. A Spanish version, " Historia de la linda Melo- 
syna ; " Tolosa, 1489. "La hysteria de la linda Melo- 
sina;" Sevilla, 1526. A Dutch translation, " Een san 
sonderlingke schone ende wonderlike historic, die men 
warachtich kout te syne ende autentick sprekende van 
* Urstisius, Scriptores Germaniae. Frankfort, 1670. 



356 Melusina. 

eenre vrouwen gheheeten Melusine;" Tantwerpen, 1500. 
A Bohemian version, probably translated from the Ger- 
man, " Kronyke Kratochwilne, o ctn^ a slech netn^ Panne 
Meluzijne ; " Prag, 1760, 1764, 1805. A Danish version, 
made about 15 79, " Melusine ; " Copenhagen, 1667, 1 702, 
1729. One in Swedish, without date. The original of 
these three last was the " History of Melusina," by Thtir- 
ing von Ringoltingen, published in 1456 ; Augsburg, 1474 ; 
Strasburg, 1478. " Melosine-Geschicht," illustrated with 
woodcuts; Heidelberg, 149 1. "Die Historia von Melu- 
sina ;"' Strasburg, 1506. "Die Histori oder Geschicht 
von der edle und schonen Melusina;" Augsburg, 1547; 
Strasburg, 1577, 1624. "Wunderbare Geschichte von der 
edeln und schonen Melusina, welche eine Tochter des 
Konigs Helmus und ein Meerwunder gewesen ist ; " 
Niirnberg, without date ; reprinted in Marbach's " Volks- 
bticher." Leipzig, 1838. 

In the fable of Melusina, there are several points de- 
serving of consideration, as — the framework of the story, 
the half-serpent or fish-shape of Melusina, and her ap- 
pearances as warnings of impending misfortune or death. 
The minor details, as, for instance, the trick with the 
hide, which is taken from the story of Dido, shall not 
detain us. 



Melusina, 357 

The framework of the myth is the story-radical corre- 
sponding with that of Lohengrin. The skeleton of the 
romance is this — 

1. A man falls in love with a woman of supernatural 
race. 

2. She consents to live with him, subject to one con- 
dition. 

3. He breaks the condition and loses her. 

4. He seeks her, and — a, recovers her; ^. never re- 
covers her. 

In the story before us, the last item has dropped out, 
but it exists in many other stories which have sprung from 
the same root. The beautiful legend of Undine is but 
another version of the same story. A young knight mar- 
ries a water-sprite, and promises never to be false to her, 
and never to bring her near a river. He breaks his 
engagement, and loses her. Then she comes to him on 
the eve of his second marriage and kisses him to death. 
Fouqu^'s inimitable romance is founded on the story as 
told by Theophrastus Paracelsus in his " Treatise on Ele- 
mental Sprites ; " but the bare bones of the myth related 
by the philosopher have been quickened into life and 
beauty by the heaven-drawn spark of poetry wherewith 
Fouqu^ has endowed them. 



35^ Melusina, 

In the French tale, Melusina seeks union with a mortal 
solely that she may escape from her enchantment ; but in 
the German more earnest tale, Undine desires to become 
a bride that she may obtain an immortal soul. The cor- 
responding Danish story is told by Hans Christian Ander- 
sen. A little mermaid sees a prince as she floats on the 
surface of the sea, and saves him in her arms from drown- 
ing when the ship is wrecked. But from that hour her 
heart is filled with yearning love for the youth whose life 
she has preserved. She seeks earth of her own free will, 
leaving her native element, although the consequence is 
pain at every step she takes.. 

She becomes the constant attendant of the prince, till 
he marries a princess, when her heart breaks and she 
becomes a Light-Elf, with prospect of immortality. 

Belonging to the same family is the pretty Indian tale 
of Urvagi. Urvagi was an " apsaras,'' or heavenly maiden ; 
she loved Puravaxas, a martial king, and became his wife, 
only, however, on condition that she should never behold 
him without his clothes. For some years they were to- 
gether, till the heavenly companions of Urvagi determined 
to secure her return to her proper sphere. They accord- 
ingly beguiled P iravaras into leaving his bed in the dark- 
ness of night, and then, with a lightning-flash, they 



Melusina. 359 

disclosed him in his nudity to the wife, who was there- 
upon constrained to leave him. A somewhat similar story 
is told, in the Katha Sarit Sagara (Book iii. c. 18), of 
Vidushaka, who loves and marries a beautiful Bhadra, but 
after a while she vanishes, leaving behind her a ring. The 
inconsolable husband wanders in search of her, and reach- 
ing the heavenly land, drops the ring in a goblet of water, 
which is taken to her. By this she recognizes him, and 
they are re-united. 

The legend of Melusina, as it comes to us, is by no 
means in its original condition. Jean d' Arras, or other 
romancers, have considerably altered the simple tale, so 
as to make it assume the proportions of a romance. All 
that story of the fay Pressina, and her marriage with King 
Helmas, is but another version of the same story as 
Melusina. 

Helmas finds Pressina near a fountain, and asks her to 
be his j she consents on condition that he does not visit 
her during her lying-in ; he breaks the condition and loses 
her. This is the same as Raymond discovering Melusina 
near a spring, and obtaining her hand subject to the con- 
dition that he will not visit her one day of the week. 
Like Helmas, he breaks his promise and loses his wife 
That both Pressina and Melusina are water-sprites, or 



360 Melusina. 

nymphs, is unquestionable ; both haunt a fountain, and 
the transformation of the lady of Lusignan indicates her 
aquatic origin. As Grimm has observed,* this is a Gallic, 
and therefore a Keltic myth, an opinion confirmed by the 
Banshee part played by the unfortunate nymph. For the 
Banshee superstition has no corresponding feature in 
Scandinavian, Teutonic, or Classic mythology, and be- 
longs entirely to the Kelts. Among others there are 
death portents, but not, that I am aware of, spirits of 
women attached to families, by their bitter cries at night 
announcing the approach of the king of terrors. 

The Irish Banshee is thus described: "We saw the 
figure of a tall, thin woman with uncovered head, and long 
hair that floated round her shoulders, attired in something 
which seemed either a loose white cloak or a sheet thrown 
hastily about her, uttering piercing cries. 

" The most remarkable instance (of the Banshee) oc- 
curs in the MS. memoirs of Lady Fanshawe, so exemplary 
for her conjugal affection. Her husband, Sir Richard, 
and she chanced, during their abode in Ireland, to visit a 
friend, the head of a sept, who resided in an ancient 
baronial castle surrounded with a moat. At midnight she 
was awakened by a ghastly and supernatural scream, and 
* Deutsche My thologie, i. 405. 



Melusina, 361 

looking out of bed, beheld in the moonlight a female face 
and part of the form hovering at the window- The face 
was that of a young and rather handsome woman, but 
pale, and the hair, which was reddish, loose and di- 
shevelled. The dress, which Lady Fanshawe's terror did 
not prevent her remarking accurately, was that of the 
ancient Irish. This apparition continued to exhibit itself 
for some time, and then vanished, with two shrieks similar 
to that which had first excited Lady Fanshawe's attention. 
In the morning, with infinite terror, she communicated 
to her host what she had witnessed, and found him 
prepared, not only to credit, but to account for the ap- 
parition : — 

"*A near relation of my family,' said he, ^expired last 
night in this castle. We disguised our certain expecta- 
tions of the event from you, lest it should throw a cloud 
over the cheerful reception which was your due.* Now, 
before such an event happens in this family and casde, 
the female spectre whom ye have seen always is visible : 
she is believed to be the spirit of a woman of inferior 
rank, whom one of my ancestors degraded himself by 
marrying, and whom afterwards, to' expiate the dishonor 

* Like Admetus in the Alcestis of Euripides. This story of 
Lady Fanshawe is from a note to " The Lady of the Lake." 



362 Melusina. 

done to his family, he caused to be drowned in the 
castle moat.* " 

A very remarkable story of the Banshee is given by 
Mr. Crofton Croker. The Rev. Charles Bunworth was 
rector of Buttevant, in the county Cork, about the middle 
of last century. He was famous for his performance on 
the national instrument, the Irish harp, and for his hospi- 
table reception and entertainment of the poor harpers 
who travelled from house to house about the country; 
and in his granary were deposited fifteen harps, be- 
queathed to him by the last members of a race which 
has now ceased to exist. 

The circumstances attending the death of Mr. Bun- 
worth were remarkable ; but, says Mr. Crofton Croker, 
there are still living credible witnesses who declare their 
authenticity, and who can be produced to attest most, if 
not all, of the following particulars. Shortly before his 
decease, a shepherd heard the Banshee keening and 
clapping her hands under a lightning-struck tree near the 
house. On the eve of his death the night was serene and 
moonlit, and nothing broke the stillness of the melancholy 
watch kept by the bedside of the sick man, who lay in the 
drawing-room, by his two daughters. The litde party 
were suddenly roused by a sound at the window near the 



Melusina, 363 

bed : a rose-tree grew outside the window, so closely as 
to touch the glass ; this was forced aside with some noise, 
and a low moaning was heard, accompanied by clapping 
of hands, as if of some female in deep affliction. It 
seemed as if the sound proceeded from a person holding 
her mouth close to the window. The lady who sat by the 
bedside of Mr. Bunworth went into the adjoining room, 
where sat some male relatives, and asked, in a tone of 
alarm, if they had heard the Banshee. Sceptical of super- 
natural appearances, two of them rose hastily, and went 
out to discover the cause of these sounds, which they also 
distinctly heard. They walked all round the house, ex- 
amining every spot of ground, particularly near the win- 
dow from whence the voice had proceeded ; the bed of 
earth beneath, in which the rose-tree was planted, had 
been recently dug, and the print of a footstep — if the 
tree had been forced aside by mortal hand — would have 
inevitably remained ; but they could perceive no such 
impression, and an unbroken stillness reigned without. 
Hoping to dispel the mystery, they continued their search 
anxiously along the road, from the straightness of which, 
and the lightness of the night, they were enabled to see 
some distance around them ; but all was silent and de- 
serted, and they returned surprised and disappointed. 



I 



364 Meltisina, 



rnin^^ 



How much more then were they astonished at learning 
that, the whole time of their absence, those who remained 
within the house had heard the moaning and clapping of 
hands even louder and more distinct than before they had 
gone out; and no sooner was the door of the room 
closed on them, than they again heard the same mournful 
sounds. Every succeeding hour the sick man became 
worse, and when the first glimpse of the morning ap- 
peared, Mr. Bunworth expired. 

The Banshee is represented in Wales by the Gwrach y 
Rhibyn, who is said to come after dusk, and flap her 
leathern wings against the window, giving warning of 
death, in a broken, howling tone, and calling on the one. 
who is to quit mortality by his or her name several times.' 
In Brittany, similar spirits are called Bandrhudes, and are 
attached to several of the ancient families. In other parts 
of France, they pass as Dames Blanches, who, however, 
are not to be confused with the Teutonic white ladies, 
which are spirits of a different order. 

But, putting the Banshee part of the story of Melusina 
on one side, "let us turn to the semi-fish or serpent form' 
of Melusina. Jean d'Arras attributes this to a curse pro- 
nounced on her by the fay Pressina,.but this is an inven- 
tion of his own ; the true conception of Melusina he did 



Melusina. 365 

not grasp, and was therefore obliged to forge a legend 
which should account for her peculiar appearance. Mel- 
usina was a mermaid. Her presence beside the fountain, 
as well as her fishy tail, indicate her nature ; she was not, 
perhaps, a native of the sea, but a stream-dweller, and 
therefore as closely related to the true mermaid of the 
briny deep as arc the fresh-water fish to those of the salt 
sea. 

The superstitious belief in mermaids is universal, and I 
frankly confess my inability to account for its origin in 
every case. In some particular cases the origin of the 
myth is clear, in others it is not so. Let me take one 
which can be explained — the Oannes -of the Chaldaeans, 
the Philistine Dagon. 

Oannes and Dag-on (the fish On) are identical. Ac- 
cording to an ancient fable preserved by Berosus, a crea- 
ture half man and half fish came out of " that part of the 
Erythraean sea which borders upon Babylonia," where he 
taught men the arts of life, " to construct cities, to found 
temples, to compile laws, and, in short, instructed them in 
all things that tend to soften manners and humanize their 
lives ; " and he adds that a representation of this animal 
Oannes was preserved in his day. A figure of him sport- 
ing in the waves, and apparently blessing a fleet of vessels, 



S66 Mehtsiria. 

was discovered in a marine piece of sculpture, by M. 
Botta, in the excavations of Khorsabad. 




\ 



CANNES, FROM KHORSABAD. 



At Nimroud, a gigantic image was found by Mr. Lay- j 
ard, representing him with the fish's head as a cap and ! 
the body of the fish depending over his shoulders, his 
legs those of a man, in his left hand holding a richly 
decorated bag, and his right hand upraised, as if in the 
act of presenting the mystic Assyrian fir-cone (British 
Museum, Nos. 29 and 30). 

This Cannes is the Mizraimite On, and the Hebrew 
Aon, with a Greek case-termination, derived from a 
root signifying **to illumine." Aon was the original 
name of the god reverenced in the temple of Heliopolis, 
which in Scripture is called Beth-Aon, the house of On, 
as well as by its translation Beth-Shemesh, the house of 
the Sun. Not only does his name indicate his solar 



Melusina, 367 

origin, but his representation with horned head-dress 
testifies to his nature. Ammon, Apis, Dionysos are sun- 
gods j Isis, lo, Artemis are moon-goddesses, and are all 
horned. Indeed, in ancient iconography horns invari- 
ably connect the gods represented with the two great 
sources of light. Apparent exceptions, such as the 
Fauns, are not so in reality, when subjected to close 
scrutiny. Civilizing gods, who diffuse intelligence and 
instruct barbarians, are also solar deities, as the Egyp- 
tian Osiris, the Nabathasan Tammuz, the Greek Apollo, 
and the Mexican Quetzalcoatl ; beside these Oannes 
takes his place, as ' the sun-god, giving knowledge and 
civilization. According to the fable related by Berosus, 




A BABYLONISH SEAL IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM, FROM MUNTER'S 
BABYLONIER. 



he came on earth each morning, and at evening plunged 
into the sea ; this is a mythical description of the rising 



368 Melusina, 

and setting of the sun. His semi-piscine form was an 
expression of the idea that half his time was spent above 
ground, and half below the waves. 

In precisely similar manner the Semitic moon-goddess, 
who followed the course of the sun, at times manifesting 
herself to the eyes of men, at others seeking concealment 
in the western flood, was represented as half woman, half 
fish, with characteristics which make her lunar origin in- 
disputable. Her name was Derceto or Atergatis. On the 
coins of Ascalon, where she was held in great honor, is 
figured a goddess above whose head is a half-moon, and 
at her feet a woman with her lower extremities like a fish. 
This is Semiramis, who, according to a popular legend, 
was the child of Derceto. At Joppa she appears as a 
mermaid. The story was, that she fled from Typhon, 
and plunged into the sea, concealing herself under the 
form of a fish. According to Plutarch, the Syrian Tirgata, 
the Derceto of Palestine, was the goddess of moisture ; * 
and Lucan (De dea Syra, c. 14) declares that she was 
represented as a woman with a fish-tail from her hips 
downward. 

* Plutarch, Crass, c. 17. According to Greek mythology, this 
goddess, under the name of Ceto, "with comely cheeks," is the 
daughter of Sea and Earth, and wife of Phorcys (Hesiod, Theog. 
V. 235, 270). 



Melusma. 369 

In every mythology, the different attributes of the deity 
in process of time became distinct gods, yet with sufficient 
impress of their origin still upon them to make that origin 
easy to be detected. 

As On, the sun-god rising and setting in the sea, was 
supplied with a corresponding moon-goddess, Atergatis, 
and Bel or Baal, also a solar deity, had his lunar Baalti, so 
the fiery Moloch, " the great lord," was supplied with his 
Mylitta, " the birth-producer." Moloch was the fierce 
flame-god, and Mylitta the goddess of moisture. Their 
worship was closely united. The priests of Moloch wore 
female attire, the priestesses of Mylitta were dressed 
like men. Human sacrifices characterized the worship of 
the fire-god, prostitution that of the goddess of water. 
From her came the names of the hetaroe Melitta, Meleto, 
Milto, Milesia (Athenseus, lib. xiii.) . Among the Cartha- 
ginians, this goddess was worshipped, as appears from 
their giving the name of Magasmelita (the tent of 
Mylitta) to one of the African provinces. * Mylitta was 
identical with Atergatis ; she was regarded as a universal 
mother, a source of life. 

In Greece, the priestesses of Demeter were called 
Melissse, the high-priest of Apollo was entitled Kvpios ratv 
/zeXXto-o-wi/. A fable was invented to account for this 

24 



370 Melusina, 

name, and to connect them with bees and honey ; but 
I have little doubt that it was corrupted from the Semitic 
designation of the servants of Mylitta. The Melissae are 
sometimes spoken of as nymphs, but are not to be identi- 
fied with the Meliadae, Dryads sprung from the ash. Yet 
Melia, daughter of Oceanus, who plunges into the Haliac- 
mon, strongly resembles the Syrian goddess. Selene, the 
moon, was also known by the name Melissa. Kai ras 

ArjfiTjTpos Upeias, a)S ttjs ;(^oz/iaff Beas fivo-ridas, /xfXia-cray ol 
TraXaioi eKoXovv, avTrjv re tyjv Koprjp /xeXto-crcoS^, ^eXr^vrjv re, 
ovcrap yeveaecos TTpocrTaTtda fieXicrcrav eKoXovp,"^ 

When we remember the double character of Mylitta, as 
a generative or all-mother, and as a moon-goddess, we 
are able to account for her name having passed into the 
Greek titles of priestesses of their corresponding god- 
desses Demeter and Selene. 

The name Melissa was probably introduced into Gaul 
by the Phocian colony at Massilia, the modern Marseilles, 
and passed into the popular mythology of the Gallic Kelts 
as the title of nymphs, till it was finally appropriated by 
the Melusina of romance. -| 

It may seem difficult at first sight to trace the con- ■ 
nection between the moon, a water-goddess, and a deity 

* Schol. Theocr. xv. 94. Porphyr. de Antro Nymph, c. 18. 



Meliisina. 371 

presiding over childbirth ; yet it is certain that such a 
connection does exist. The classic Venus was born of 
the sea- foam, and was unmistakably one with the moon. 
She was also the goddess of love, and was resorted to by 
barren women — as the Venus of Quimperle in Brittany 
is, to this day, sought by those who have no children. 

On the Syrian coast, they told of their goddess plung- 
ing into the sea, because they saw the moon descend 
into the western waters ; but the Cretans, who beheld 
her rise above the eastern horizon of sea, fabled of a 
foam-born goddess. 

In classic iconography the Tritons, and in later art the 
Sirens, are represented half fish, half human. Originally 
the Sirens were winged, but after the fable had been 
accepted, which told of their strife with the Muses, and 
their precipitation into the sea, they were figured like 
mermaids ; the fish-form was by them borrowed from 
Derceto. It is curious how widely-spread is the belief 
in fish-women. The prevalence of tales of mermaids 
among Celtic populations indicates' these water-nymphs 
as having been originally deities of those peoples ; and I 
cannot but beheve that the circular mirror they are 
usually represented as holding is a reminiscence of the 
moon-disk. Bothe, in his " Kronecke der Sassen," in 



372 Melusina, 

1492, described a god, Krodo, worshipped in the Hartz, 
who was represented with his feet on a fish, a wheel to 
symbolize the moon in one hand, and a pail of water in 
the other. As among the Northern nations the moon is 
masculine, its deity was male. Probably the Mexican 
Coxcox or Teocipactli (i.e. Fish-god) was either a solar 
or Imiar deity. He was entitled Huehueton-acateo-cateo- 
cipatH, or Fish-god-of-our-flesh, to give him his name in 
full ; he somewhat resembled the Noah of Sacred Writ ; for 
the Mexican fable related, that in a great time of floods 
when the earth was covered with water, he rescued himself 
in a cypress trunk, and peopled the world with wise and 
intelligent beings.* Tlie Babylonish Oannes was also 
identified with the flood. 

The Peruvians had likewise their semi-fish gods, but 
the legend connected with them has not descended to 
our. days. 

The North-American Indians relate that they were 
conducted from Northern Asia by a man-fish. *^ Once 
upon a time, in the season of opening buds, the people 
of our nation were much terrified at seeing a strange crea- 
ture, much resembling a man, riding upon the waves. 

* Miiller, Geschichte der Amerikanischen Urreligionen. Basel, 
1855, p. 515. 



Mehisina. 373 

He had upon his head long green hair, much resembling 
the coarse weeds which the mighty storms scatter along 
the margin of the strand. Upon his face, which was 
shaped like that of a porpoise, he had a beard of 
the same color. But if our people were frightened at 
seeing a man who could live in the water like a fish or a 
duck, how much more were they frightened when they 
saw that from his breast down he was actually a fish, or 
rather two fishes, for each of his legs was a whole and 
distinct fish. And there he would sit for hours singing 
to the wondering ears of the Indians the beautiful things 
he saw in the depths of the ocean, always closing his 
strange stories with these words : ' Follow me, and 
see what I will show you.' For a great many suns, they 
dared not venture upon the water; but when they grew 
hungry, they at last put to sea, and following the man- 
fish, who kept close to the boat, reached the American 
coast." * 

It is not impossible that the North- American Indians 
may have symbolized the sun in the same manner as the 
Syrians, and that this legend may signify that the early 
colonists, to reach the New Land, followed the Jish- 

* Epitomized from Traditions of the North- American Indians, 
by J. A. Jones. 1830, pp. 47-5^- 



374 Melusina, 

course of the sun, which as man goes from East to 
West, whereas when it dives it swims from West to East, 
the course taken by the Indians in their canoes. The 
wanderers in the. Canadian forests have also their fish- 
woman, of whom a tale is related which bears a lively- 
resemblance to that of Undine, and which is not a little 
like that of Melusina. 

-One day an Ottawa chief, whilst sitting by the water 
side, beheld a beautiful woman rise from the flood, her 
face exquisitely lovely, her eyes blue, her teeth white, and 
her locks floating over her shoulders. From her waist 
downwards she was fish, or rather two fishes. She en- 
treated the warrior to permit her to live on earth, as she 
desired to win a human soul, which could only be ac- 
quired by union with a mortal. He consented and took 
her to his house, where she was to him as a daughter. 
Some years after an Andirondack youth beheld and loved 
her. He took her to wife, and she obtained that which 
she had desired — a human soul. 

In the Undine story, a water- maiden, in like manner 
and for a like object, is adopted by an old fisherman, and 
becomes the bride of a youthful German knight. But the 
Andirondack tribe was ill-pleased at the marriage of their 
chief with the mysterious damsel, and they tore her from 



Melusina, 375 

his arms, and drove her back to her original element. 
Then all the water-spirits vowed revenge at the insult 
offered to one of their race ; they stirred up war between 
the Ottawas and Andirondacks, which led to the extermi- 
nation of the latter ; one only was rescued, and he was 
grasped by the fish-wife, and by her borne down to the 
watery depths below the Falls of St. Anthony. In the 
German story, the husband is weary with the taunts of 
those around at having married a water-sprite, and bids 
her return to her element. Then the spirits of the flood 
vow his destruction, and send Undine on earth to embrace 
her faithless lord, and kiss him to death. The name of 
the fish- wo man is in German Meerfrau or Meriminni ; in 
Danish, the Siren is Maremind ; and in Icelandic and old 
Norse, Marmennill ; in Irish she is the Merrow ; with the 
Breton peasantry she is Marie-Morgan. In the legendary 
lore of all these people, there are stories of the loves of a 
mortal man and a mermaid. According to Mr. Crofton 
Croker, O'Sullivan More, Lord of Dunkerron, lost his 
heart to one of these beautiful water-sprites, and she 
agreed to be his, but her parents resented the union and 
killed her. 

On the shore of Smerwick harbor, an Irishman, Dick 
Fitzgerald, caught a Merrow with her cohiileen driuth^ or 



376 Melusina. 

enchanted cap, lying on a rock beside her. He grasped 
the cap, and thereby possessed himself of the nymph, 
who, however, seemed nothing loth to obtain a mortal 
husband. They lived together happily for some years, 
and saw a family of beautiful children grow up at their 
knees. But one day the Lady of Gollerus, as she was 
called, discovered her old cap in a corner. She took it 
up and looked at it, and then thought of her father the 
king and her mother the queen, and felt a longing to go 
back to them. She kissed the babies, and then went 
down to the strand with the full intention of returning to 
Gollerus after a brief visit to her home. However, no 
sooner was the cohuleen driuth on her head, than all re- 
membrance of her life on earth was forgotten, and she 
plunged into the sea, never to return. Similar tales are 
related in Shetland, the Faroes, in Iceland, and Nor- 
way. 

Vade, the father of the famous smith Velund, was the 
son of King Vilkin and a mermaid whom he met in a 
wood on the sea-shore in Russia.* In the Saga of Half 
and his knights is an account of a merman who was 
caught and kept a little while on land. He sang the 
following entreaty to be taken back to his native ele- 
ment — 

* Vilkina Saga, c. l8. 



Melusina. 377 

"Cold water to the eyes! 
Flesh raw to the teeth ! 
A shroud to the dead ! 
Flit me back to the sea! 
Henceforward never 
Men in ships sailing ! 
Draw me to dry land 
From the depth of the sea ! *' * 

In the "Speculum Regale," an Icelandic work of the 
twelfth century, is the following description of a mer- 
maid : — • 

" A monster is seen also near Greenland, which people 
call the Margygr. This creature appears like a woman as 
far down as her waist, with breast and bosom like a 
woman, long hands, and soft hair, the neck and head in 
all respects like those of a human being. The hands 
seem to people to be long, and the fingers not to be 
parted, but united by a web like that on the feet of water- 
birds. From the waist downwards, this monster resembles 
a fish, with scales, tail, and fins. This prodigy is believed 
to show itself especially before heavy storms. The habit 
of this creature is to dive frequently and rise again to the 
surface with fishes in its hands. When sailors see it 
playing with the fish, or throwing them towards the ship, 
they fear that they are doomed to lose several of the 

* Halfs Saga ok rekum hans, c. 7. 



378 Melusina. 

crew; but when it casts the fish, or, turning from the 
vessel, flings them away from her, then the sailors take 
it as a good omen that they will not suffer loss in the 
impending storm. This monster has a very horrible face, 
with broad brow and piercing eyes, a wide mouth, and 
double chin." * The Landnama, or Icelandic Doomsday 
book, speaks of a Marmennill, or merman, having been 
caught off the island of Grimsey ; and the annals of the 
same country relate the appearance of these beings off 
the coast in 1305 and in 1329. 

Megasthenes reported that the sea which washed Tap- 
robane, the modern Ceylon, was inhabited by a creature 
having the appearance of a woman ; and ^lian improved 
this account, by stating that there are whales having the 
form of Satyrs. In 1187, a merman was fished up off the 
coast of Suffolk. It closely resembled a man, but was not 
gifted with speech. One day, when it had the opportu- 
nity to escape, it fled to the sea, plunged in, and was 
never seen again. Pontoppidan records the appearance 
of a merman, which was deposed to on oath by the 
observers. 

" About a mile from the coast of Denmark, near Lands- 
crona, three sailors, observing something like a dead 

* Quoted in " Iceland, its Scenes and Sagas,*' p. 349. 



Melusina, 379 

body floating in the water, rowed towards it. When they 
came within seven or eight fathoms, it still appeared as at 
first, for it had not stirred ; but at that instant it sank, 
and came up almost immediately in the same place. 
Upon this, out of fear, they lay still, and then let the boat 
float, that they might the better examine the monster, 
which, by the help of the current, came nearer and nearer 
to them. He turned his face and stared at them, which 
gave them a good opportunity of examining him nar- 
rowly. He stood in the same place for seven or eight 
minutes, and was seen above the water breast-high. At 
last they grew apprehensive of some danger, and began 
to retire ; upon which the monster blew up his cheeks 
and made a kind of lowing noise, and then dived from 
their view. In regard to his form, they declare in their 
aflidavits, which were regularly taken and recorded, that 
he appeared like an old man, strong limbed, with broad 
shoulders, but his arms they could not see. His head was 
small in proportion to his body, and had short, curled 
black hair, which did not reach below his ears ; his eyes 
lay deep in his head, and he had a meagre face, with a 
black beard ; about the body downwards, this merman 
was quite pointed like a fish." * 

* Pontoppidan's Nat. Hist, of Norway, p. 154. 



380 Melusina. 

In the year 1430, after a violent tempest, which broke 
down the dykes in Holland and flooded the low lands, 
some girls of the town of Edam in West Friesland, going 
in a boat to milk their cows, observed a mermaid in shal- 
low water and embarrassed in the mud. 

They took it into their boat and brought it into Edam, 
dressed it in female attire, and taught it to spin. It fed 
with them, but never could be taught to speak. It was 
afterwards brought to Haerlem, where it lived for several 
years, though still showing a strong inclination for water. 
Parival, in his " Delices de Hollande," relates that it was 
instructed in its duty to God, and that it made reverences 
before a crucifix. Old Hudson, the navigator, in his dry 
and ponderous narrative, records the following incident, 
when trying to force a passage to the pole near Nova 
Zembla, lat. 75°, on the 15th June. "This morning, one 
of our company looking overboard saw a mermaid ; and 
calhng up some of the company to see her, one more 
came up, and by that time she was come close to the 
ship's side, looking earnestly at the men. A little after, a 
sea came and overturned her. From the navel upward, 
her back and breasts were like a woman's, as they say that 
saw her; her body as big as one of us, her skin very 
white, and long hair hanging down behind, of color black. 



Melusina. 381 

In her going down they saw her tail, which was like the 
tail of a porpoise, speckled like a mackerel. Their names 
that saw her were Thomas Hilles and Robert Rayner." 

In 1560, near the island of Mandar, on the west of 
Ceylon, some fishermen entrapped in their net seven 
mermen and mermaids, of which several Jesmts, and 
Father Henriques, and Bosquez, physician to the Viceroy 
of Goa, were witnesses. The physician examined them 
with a great deal of care, and dissected them. He asserts 
that the internal and external structure resembled that of 
human beings. We have another account of a merman 
seen near the great rock Diamon, on the coast of Mar- 
tinique. The persons who saw it gave a precise descrip- 
tion of it before a notary; they affirmed that they saw 
it wipe its hands over its face, and even heard it blow its 
nose. Another creature of the same species was captured 
in the Baltic in 1531, and sent as a present to Sigismund, 
King of Poland, with whom it lived three days, and was 
seen by all the Court. Another was taken near Rocca de 
Sintra, as related by Damian Goes. The King of Portugal 
and the Grand-Master of the Order of St. James are said 
to have had a suit at law, to determine which party the 
creature belonged to. 

Captain Weddell, well known for his geographical dis- 



382 Melusina. 

coveries in the extreme south of the globe, relates the 
following story : *^ A boat's crew were employed on Hall's 
Island, when one of the crew, left to take care of some 
produce, saw an animal whose voice was even musi- 
cal. The sailor had lain down, and about ten o'clock he 
heard a noise resembling human cries ; and as daylight in 
these latitudes never disappears at this season, he rose and 
looked around, but, on seeing no person, returned to bed. 
Presently he heard the noise again, rose a second time, 
but still saw nothing. Conceiving, however, the possi- 
bility of a boat being upset, and that some of the crew 
might be clinging to some detached rocks, he walked 
along the beach a few steps, and heard the noise more 
distinctly, but in a musical strain. Upon searching round, 
he saw an object lying on a rock a dozen yards from the 
shore, at which he was somewhat frightened. The face 
and shoulders appeared of human form, and of a reddish 
color; over the shoulders hung long green hair; the tail 
resembled that of the seal, but the extremities of the arms 
he could not see distinctly. The creature continued to 
make a musical noise while he gazed about two minutes, 
and on perceiving him it disappeared in an instant. Im- 
mediately when the man saw his officer, he told this wild 
tale, and to add weight to his testimony (being a Roman- 



Melusina. 383 

ist) he made a cross on the sand, which he kissed, as 
making oath to the truth of his statement. When I saw 
him, he told the story in so clear and positive a manner, 
making oath to its truth, that I concluded he must really 
have seen the animal he described, or that it must have 
been the effect of a disturbed imagination." * 

In a splendidly illustrated work with plates colored by 
hand, " Poissons, ^crevisses et crabes de diverses cou- 
leurs et figures extraordinaire s, que Ton trouve autour des 
Isles Moluques," dedicated to King George of England, 
and published by Louis Renard at Amsterdam, in 1 7 1 7, 
is a curious account of a mermaid. This book was the 
result of thirty years' labor, in the Indian seas, by Blatazar 
Coyett, Governor of the Islands of the Province of Am- 




boine and President of the Commissioners in Batavia, 
and by Adrien Van der Stell, Governor Regent of the 

* Voyage towards the South Pole, p. .143, quoted by Goss : 
Romance of Nat Hist, 2nd Series. 



384 Melusina, 

Province of Amboine. In the 2nd volume, p. 240, is the 
picture of a mermaid here reproduced, and the subjoined 
description : — 

^' See-wyf. A monster resembling a Siren, caught near 
the island of Born6, or Boeren, in the Department of 
Amboine. It was 59 inches long, and in proportion as 
an eel. It lived on land, in a vat full of water, during 
four days seven hours. From time to time it uttered 
little cries like those of a mouse. It would not eat, 
though it was offered small fish, shells, crabs, lobsters, &c. 
After its death, some excrement was discovered in the vat, 
like the secretion of a cat." The copy from which I have 
taken the representation for this work is thus colored : 
hair, the hue of kelp ; body, olive tint ; webbed olive 
between the fingers, which have each four joints ; the 
fringe round the waist orange, with a blue border ; the 
fins green, face slate-gray; a delicate row of pink hairs 
runs the length of the tail. 

With such a portrait we may well ask with Tenny- 
son — 

" Who would be 

A mermaid fair, 

Singing alone, 

Combing her hair 

Under the sea 

In a golden curl, 

With a comb of pearl, 

On a throne?'' 



Melusina. 385 

The introduction to the book contains additional infor- 
mation. 

The Avertissement de VEditeur says : — " M. Baltazar 
Coyett is the first to whom the great discovery is due. 
Whilst governor, he encouraged the fishery of these fishes ; 
and after having had about two hundred painted of those 
which were brought to his home by the Indians of Am- 
boine and the neighboring isles, as well as by the Dutch 
there settled, he formed of them two collections, the 
originals of which were brought by his son to M. Scott 
the Elder, who was then chief advocate, or prime min- 
ister, of the Company General of the East Indies at 
Amsterdam. He had them copied exactly. The second 
volume, less correct indeed in the exactitude of the draw- 
ings, but very curious on account of the novelties where- 
with it is filled, and of the remarks accompanying each' 
fish, was taken from the collection of M. Van der Stell, 
Governor of the Moluccas, by a painter named Gamael 
Fallours, who brought them to me from the Indies, and 
of which I have selected about 250. Moreover, to check 
incredulity in certain persons, I have thought fit to subjoin 
the following certificates." Among them, the most curious 
are those relating to the mermaid. 

Letter from Renard, the publisher, to M. Frangois 

25 



386 Melusina. 

Valentyn, minister of the Gospel at Dort, late superin- 
tendent of the churches in the colonies, dated Amster- 
dam, Dec. 17, 1 716. 

" Monsieur, 

" His Majesty the Czar of Muscovy having done me 
the honor of visiting my house, and having had occasion 
to show the prince the work on the fishes of the Molucca 
islands, by the Sieur Fallours, in which, among other draw- 
mgs, is the enclosed plate, representing a monster resem- 
bling a Siren, which this painter says that he saw alive for 
four days at Amboine, as you will be pleased to see in the 
writing with his own hand, which accompanies this pic- 
ture, and as he believes that M. Van der Stell, the present 
Governor of Amboine, may have sent it to you, I re- 
marked that his Majesty the Czar would be much gratified 
to have this fact substantiated ; wherefore I shall be greatly 
obliged if you will favor me with a reply. 

" I remain, &c." 

REPLY. 

"Dort, Dec. 18, 17 16. 
" Monsieur, 

" It is not impossible that, since my departure from the 
Indies, Fallours may have seen at Amboine the monster 






Melusina, 387 

whose picture you had the courtesy to send me, and which 
I return enclosed ; but up to the present moment I have 
neither seen nor heard of the original. If I had the 
creature, I would with all my heart make a present of 
it to his Majesty the Czar, whose application in the re- 
search of objects of curiosity deserves the praise of all the 
world. But, sir, as evidence that there are monsters in 
nature resembling this Siren, I may say that I know for 
certain, that in the year 1652 or 1653 a lieutenant in the 
service of the Company saw two of these beings in the 
gulf, near the village of Hennetelo, near the islands of 
Ceram and Boero, in the Department of Amboine. They 
were swimming side by side, which made him presume 
that one was male, the other female. Six weeks after they 
reappeared in the same spot, and were seen by more than 
fifty persons. These monsters were of a greenish gray 
color, having precisely the shape of human beings from 
the head to the waist, with arms and hands, but their 
bodies tapered away. One was larger than the other; 
their hair was moderately long. I may add that, on my 
way back from the Indies, in which I resided thirty years, 
I saw, on the ist May, 1714, long. 12° 18', and on the 
Meridian, during clear, calm weather, at the distance of 
three or four ship-lengths off, a monster, which was 



388 Melusina, 

apparently a sort of marine-man, of a bluish gray (gris 
de mer). It was raised well above the surface, and 
seemed to have a sort of fisher's cap of moss on its 
head. All the ship's company saw it, as well as myself; 
but although its back was turned towards us, the monster 
seemed conscious that we were approaching too near, and 
it dived suddenly under water, and we saw it no more. 

" I am, &c., 

"F. Valentyn." 

Letter from M. Parent, Pastor of the church of Am- 
sterdam, written and exhibited before the notary Jacob 
Lansman. . 

"Amsterdam, July 15, 1717. 
" Monsieur, 

" I have seen with mingled pleasure and surprise the 
illuminated proofs of the beautiful plates which you have 
had engraved, representing the fishes of Molucca, which 
were painted from nature by the Sieur Samuel Fallours, 
with whom I was acquainted when at Amboine. I own, 
sir, that I was struck with astonishment at the sight of 
this work, the engravings of which closely resemble the 
fishes I have seen during my life, and which, or some of 
which, I have ha*^ the pleasure of eating during the 



d 



Melusina. 389 

thirteen years I resided at Amboiiie^ from which I re- 
turned with the fleet in 1716. . . . Touching your 
inquiry, whether I ever saw a Siren in that country, I 
reply that, whilst making the circuit of our churches in 
the Molucca Isles (which is done twice in the year by the 
pastors who understand the language of the country) , and 
navigating in an oramhay, or species of galley, between 
the villages of Holilieuw and Karieuw, distant from one 
another about two leagues by water, it happened, whilst I 
was dozing, that the negro rowers uttered a shrill cry of 
astonishment, which aroused me with a start ; and when I 
inquired the cause of their outcry, they replied unani- 
mously that they had seen clearly and distinctly a monster 
like a Siren, with a face resembling that of a man, and 
long hair like that of a woman floating down its back; 
but at their cry it had replunged into the sea, and all I 
could see was the agitation of the water where this Siren 
had disturbed it by diving. 

" I am, sir, &c., 

" Parent." 

One of the most remarkable accounts of a mermaid is 
;hat in Dr. Robert Hamilton's " History of the Whales 
ind Seals," in the " Naturalist's Library," he himself 
vouching for its general truth, from personal knowledge 



I 



390 Melusina, 

of some of the parties. *^ It was reported that a fishing- 
boat off the island of Yell, one of the Shetland group, had 
captured a mermaid by its getting entangled in the lines." 
Hie statement is, that the animal was about three feet 
long, the upper part of the body resembling the human, 
with protuberant mammae, like a woman ; the face, the 
forehead, and neck were short, and resembling those of a 
monkey ; the arms, which were small, were kept folded 
across the breast ; the fingers were distinct, not webbed ; 
a few stiff, long bristles were on the top of the head, ex^ 
tending down to the shoulders, and these it could erect 
and depress at pleasure, something like a crest. The i 
inferior part of the body was like a fish. The skin was 
smooth, and of a gray color. It offered no resistance, 
nor attempted to bite, but uttered a low, plaintive sound. 
The crew, six in number, took it within their boat ; but 
superstition getting the better of curiosity, they carefully 
disentangled it from the lines and froiji a hook which had 
accidentally fastened in its body, and returned it to its 
native element. It instantly dived, descending in a per- 
pendicular direction. 

"After writing the above (we are informed), the nar-, 
rator had an interview with the skipper of the boat and 
one of the crew, from whom he learned the following 



Melusina, 391 

additional particulars. They had the animal for three 
hours within the boat ; the body was without scales or 
hair, was of a silver-gray color above and white below, 
Hke the human skin ; no gills were observed, nor fins on 
the back or belly ; the tail was like that of the dog-fish ; 
the mammae were about as large as those of a woman ; 
the mouth and lips were very distinct, and resembled the 
human. This communication was from Mr. Edmonton, a 
well-known and intelligent observer, to the distinguished 
professor of natural history in the Edinburgh University ; 
and Mr. E. adds a few reflections, which are so pertinent 
that we shall avail ourselves of them. That a very peculiar 
animal has been taken, no one can doubt. It was seen 
and handled by six men on one occasion and for some 
time, not one of whom dreams of a doubt of its being a 
mermaid. If it were supposed that their fears 'magnified 
its supposed resemblance to the human form, it must at 
all events be admitted that there was some ground for ex- 
citing these fears. But no such fears were likely to be 
entertained ; for the mermaid is not an object of terror to 
the fisherman : it is rather a welcome guest, and danger 
^ is to be apprehended only from its experiencing bad treat- 
ment. The usual resources of scepticism, that the seals 
and other sea-animals, appearing under certain circum- 



392 Melusina, 

stances, operating on an excited imagination, and so pra 
ducing ocular illusion, cannot avail here. It is quite 
impossible that, under the circumstances, six Shetland 
fishermen could commit such a mistake." 

One of these creatures was found in the belly of a 
shark, on the north-west coast of Iceland, and is thus 
described by Wernhard Guthmund's son, priest of Ottrar- 
dale : — 

" The lower part of the animal was entirely eaten away, 
whilst the upper part, from the epigastric and hypogastric 
region, was in some places partially eaten, in others com- 
pletely devoured. The sternum, or breast-bone, was per- 
fect. This animal appeared to be about the size of a boy 
eight or nine years old, and its head was formed like that 
of a man. The anterior surface of the occiput was very 
protuberant, and the nape of the neck had a considerable 
indentation or sinking. The alae of the ears were very 
large, and extended a good way back. It had front teeth, 
which were long and pointed, as were also the larger 
teeth. The eyes were lustreless, and resembled those of 
~a codfish. It had on its head long black, coarse hair, 
very similar to the fuciis filiformis ; this hair hung over 
the shoulders. Its forehead was large and round. The 
skin above the eyelids was much wrinkled, scanty, and of 



Mehisina, 393 

a bright olive color, which was indeed the hue of the 
whole body. The chin was cloven, the shoulders were 
high, and the neck uncommonly short. The arms were 
of their natural size, and each hand had a thumb and four 
fingers covered with flesh. Its breast was formed exactly 
like that of a man, and there was also to be seen some- 
thing like nipples ; the back was also like that of a man. 
It had very cartilaginous ribs ; and in parts where the skin 
had been rubbed off, a black, coarse flesh was perceptible, 
very similar to that of the seal. This animal, after having 
been exposed about a week on the shore, was again 
thrown into the sea.'^ * 

To the manufactured mermaids which come from 
Japan, and which are exhibited at shows, it is not neces- 
sary to do more than allude ; they testify to the Japanese 
conception of a sea-creature resembling the Tritons of 
ancient Greece, the Syrian On and Derceto, the Scandi- 
navian Marmennill, and the Mexican Coxcox. 

* Quoted in my " Iceland, its Scenes and Sagas.*' 



^\)t lovimatt l0le0^ 

IN my article on the " Terrestrial Paradise '' I men- 
tioned the principal mediaeval fables existing relative 
to that blessed spot, which was located, according to 
popular belief, in the remote East of Asia. The Ancients 
had a floating tradition relative to a vast continent called 
Atlantis, in the far West, where lay Kronos asleep, guarded 
by Briareus ; a land of rivers, and woods, and soft airs, 
occupying in their thoughts the position assumed in 
Christian belief by the earthly paradise. The Fathers 
of the Church waged war against this object of popular 
mythology, for Scripture plainly indicated the position of 
the garden land as "eastward in Eden" (Gen. ii. 8); 
but, notwithstanding their attempts to drive the western 
paradise from the minds of men, it held its ground, and 
was beUeved in throughout the middle ages, till Christo- 
pher Columbus sought and found Atlantis and paradise in 
the new world, a world in which the theories of the 



The Fortunate Isles, 395 

Ancients and of the Mediaevals met, for it was truly east 
of Asia and west of Europe. "The saintly theologians 
and philosophers were right," are the words of the great 
admiral in one of his letters, " when they fixed the site of 
the terrestrial paradise in the extreme Orient, because it 
is a most temperate clime ; and the lands which T have 
just discovered are the limits of the Orient ; " an opniion 
he repeats in his letter of 1498 : " I am convinced that 
there is the terrestrial paradise," namely that which had 
been located by Saints Ambrose, Isidore, and the Vener- 
able Bede in the East.* 

The belief in a western land, or group of islands, was 
prevalent among the Kelts as well as the Greek and Latin 
geographers, and was with them an article of religion, 
upon which were founded superstitious practices, which 
perpetuated themselves after the introduction of Chris- 
tianity. 

This belief in a western land probably arose from the 
discovery of objects, unfamiliar and foreign, washed up 
on the European shores. In the hfe of Columbus, Martin 
Vincent, pilot of the King of Portugal, picked up off 
Cape St. Vincent a piece of carved wood ; and a similar 
fragment was washed ashore on th6 Island of MAdeira, 

* Navarrette, Coll. de Documents, i. p. 244. 



396 The Fortunate hies. 



1 



and found by Pedro Correa, brother-in-law of the great 
navigator. The inhabitants of the Azores said that when 
the wind blew from the West, there were brought ashore 
great bamboos and pines of a description wholly unknown 
to them. On the sands of the Island of Flores were 
found one day the bodies of two men with large faces, 
and with features very different from those of Europeans. 
On another occasion, two canoes were driven on the coast 
filled with strange men.* In 1682, 4 Greenland canoe 
appeared off the Isle of Eda in the Orkneys, and in the 
church of Burra was long preserved an Esquimaux boat 
which had been washed ashore. f On the stormy coast 
of the Hebrides are often found imts, which are made 
by the fishermen into snuff-boxes or worn as amulets. 
Martin, who wrote of the Western Isles in 1703, calls 
them "Molluka beans." They are seeds of the Mimosa 
scandens, washed by the gulf-stream across the Atlantic to 
our shores. Great logs of drift-wood of a strange char- 
acter are also carried to the same coasts, and are used 
by the islanders in the construction of their hovels. 

In 1508, a French vessel met with a boat full of Ameri- 
can Indians not far off the English coast, as Bembo tells 

* Herrera, Hist. General, Dec. i. lib. i. cap. 2. 

t Wallace, An Account of the Islands oi Orkney, 1700, p. 60 



The Fortunate Isles. 397 

us in his history of Venice.* Other instances have been 
cited by commentators on the curious fragment of Cor- 
nelius Nepos, which gave rise in the middle ages to a 
discussion of the possibility of forcing a north-west pas- 
sage to India. Humboldt, in his remarks on this passage, 
says : ^* Pomponius Mela, who lived at a period sufficiently 
near that of Cornelius Nepos, relates, and Pliny repeats 
it, that Metellus Celer, whilst Proconsul of Gaul, received 
as a gift from a king of the Boii or Boeti (the name is 
somewhat uncertain, and Pliny calls him a king of the 
Suevi) some Indians who, driven by the tempests from 
the Indian seas, landed on the coasts of Germany. It is 
of no importance discussing here whether Metellus Celer 
is the same as the Praetor of Rome in the year of the 
consulship of Cicero, and afterwards consul conjointly 
with L. Africanus ; or whether the German king was 
Ariovistus, conquered by Julius Caesar. What is certain 
is, that from the chain of ideas which lead Mela to cite 
this fact as indisputable, one may conclude that in his 
time it was believed in Rome that these swarthy men sent 
from Germany into Gaul had come across the ocean 
which bathes the East and North of Asia.*' f - 

* Bembo, Hist. Ven. vii. p. 257. 

t Humboldt, Essai sur I'Hist. de la Geographic du N. Conti- 
nent, ii. p. 264, note 2. 



398 The Fortunate Isles, 

The canoes, bodies, timber, and nuts, washed up on 
the western coasts of Europe, may have originated the 
beUef in there being a land beyond the setting sun ; and 
this country, when once supposed to exist, was variously 
designated as Meropis, the continent of Kronos, Ogygia, 
Atlantis, the Fortunate Isles, or the Garden of the Hes- 
perides. Strabo says distinctly that the only hindrance in 
the way of passing west from Iberia to India is the vast- 
ness of the Atlantic ocean, but that " in the same temper- 
ate zone as we inhabit, and especially about the parallel 
passing through Thinae and traversing the Atlantic, there 
may exist two inhabited countries, and perhaps even more 
than two/' * A more distinct prophecy of America than 
the vague expressions of Seneca — " Finitam cuique rei 
magnitudinem natura dederat, dedit et modum : nihil 
infinitum est nisi Oceanus. Fertiles in Oceano jacere 
terras, ultraque Oceanum rursus alia Httora, alium nasci 
orbem, nee usquam naturam rerum desinere, sed semper 
inde ubi desiisse videatur, novam exsurgere, facile ista 
finguntur, quia Oceanus navigari non potest " (Suasoria I.). 
Aristotle accepted the notion of tb^ere being a new con- 
tinent in the West, and described it, from the accounts 
of the Carthaginians, as a land opposite the Pillars of 

* Stiabo, Geog. lib. i. 



The Fortunate Isles. 399 

Hercules (Str. of Gibraltar), fertile, well- watered, and 
covered with forests.* Diodorus gives the Phoenicians 
the credit of having discovered it, and adds that there 
are lofty mountains in that country, and that the tempera- 
ture is not subject to violent changes. f He however tries 
to distinguish between it and the Elysium of Homer, the 
Fortunate Isles of Pindar, and the Garden of the Hes- 
perides. The Carthaginians began to found colonies 
there, but were forbidden by law, as it was feared that 
' the old mother settlement would be deserted for the new 
and more attractive country. Plutarch locates Homer's 
Island of Ogygia fiwe days' sail to the west of Brittia, and 
he adds, the great continent, or terra firma, is five thou- 
sand stadia from Ogygia. It stretches far away towards 
the north, and the people inhabiting this great land regard 
the old world as a small island. This is an observation 
made also by Theopompus, in his geographical myth of 
Meropis.J 

The ancient theories of Atlantis shall detain us no 
longer, as they have been carefully and exhaustively 
treated by Humboldt in the already quoted work on the 
geography of the New World. We shall therefore pass 

* Aristot. De Mirab. Aucult. c. 84. 

t Diod. Hist, ed. Wessel, torn. i. p. 244. 

t iElian, Var. Hist. iii. 18. 



400 The Fortunate Isles, 

to the Kelts, and learn the position occupied by America 
in their mythology. 

Brittia, says Procopius, lies 200 stadia from the coast 
between Britannia and Thule, opposite the mouth of the 
Rhine, and is inhabited by Angles, Frisians, and Britons.* 
By Britannia he means the present Brittany, and Brittia 
is England. Tzetze relates that on the ocean coast, 
opposite Britannia, live fishermen subject to the Franks, 
but freed from paying tribute, on account of their occu- 
pation, which consists in rowing souls across to the oppo- 
site coast. t Procopius tells the same story, and Sir Walter 
Scott gives it from him in his ^^ Count Robert of Paris.'' 
" I have read," says Agelastes, " in that brilliant mirror 
which reflects the times of our fathers, the volumes of the 
learned Procopius, that beyond Gaul, and nearly opposite 
to it, but separated by an arm of the sea, lies a ghastly 
region, on which clouds and tempests for ever rest, and 
which is known to its continental neighbors as the abode 
to which departed spirits are sent after this life. On one 
side of the strait dwell a few fishermen, men possessed 
of a strange character, and enjoying singular privileges in 
consideration of thus being the living ferrymen who, per- 
forming the office of the heathen Charon, carry the spirits 

* De Bello Gothico, lib. iv. 20. t Ad Lycophr. v. 1200. 



The Fortunate Isles, 401 

of the departed to the island which is their residenc e after 
death. At the dead of the night these fishermen are in 
rotation summoned to perform the duty by which they 
seem to hold permission to reside on this strange coast. 
A knock is heard at the door of his cottage, who holds 
the turn of this singular office, founded by no mortal 
hand ; a whispering, as of a decaying breeze, summons 
the ferryman to his duty. He hastens to his bark on the 
sea-shore, and has no sooner launched it, than he per- 
ceives its hull sink sensibly in the water, so as to express 
the weight of the dead with whom it is filled. No form 
is seen ; and though voices are heard, yet the accents are 
undistinguishable, as of one who speaks in his sleep." 
According to Villemarqu^, the place whence the boat put 
off with its ghostly freight was near Raz, a headland near 
the Bay of Souls, in the extreme west of Finisterre. The 
bare, desolate valleys of this cape, opposite the Island of 
Seint, with its tarn of Kleden, around which dance nightly 
the skeletons of drowned mariners, the abyss of Plogoff, 
and the wild moors studded with Druid monuments, make 
it a scene most suitable for the assembly of the souls 
previous to their ghastly voyage. Here too, in Yawdot, 
the ruins of an ancient town near Llannion, has been 
identified the 'YaSerot of Strabo. 

26 



402 The Fortunate Isles. 

" On the great island of Brittia," continues Procopius, 
'^ the men of olden time built a great wall cutting off a 
great portion of the land. East of this wall, there was a 
good climate and abundant crops, but west of it, on the 
contrary, it was such that no man could live there an 
hour ; it was the haunt of myriads of serpents and other 
reptiles, and if any one crossed the wall, he died at once, 
poisoned by the noxious exhalations." This belief, which 
acted as a second wall to the realm of the dead, preserved 
strict privacy for the spirits. Procopius declares that 
this tradition was widely spread, and that it was reported 
to him by many people. 

Claudian also heard of the same myth, but confused 
it with that of the nether world of Odysseus. " At the 
extreme coast of Gaul is a spot protected from the tides 
of Ocean, where Odysseus by bloodshed allured forth the 
silent folk. There are heard wailing cries, and the light 
fluttering around of the shadows. And the natives there 
see pale, statue-like figures and dead corpses wander- 
ing.''* According to Philemon in Pliny, the Cimbri 
called the Northern Ocean Morimarusa, i,e, mare mor- 
tuum, the sea of the dead. 

In the old romance of Lancelot du Lac, the Demoiselle 

* In -Rufin, i. 123-133. 



The Fortunate Isles. 403 

d'Escalot directed that after death her body should be 
placed richly adorned in a boat, and allowed to float away 
before the wind; a trace of the ancient belief in the 
passage over sea to the soul-land. 

" There take the little bed on which I died 
For Lancelot's love, and deck it- like the Queen's 
For richness, and me also like the Queen 
In all I have of rich, and lay me on it. 
And let there be prepared a chariot-bier 
To take me to the river, and a barge 
Be ready on the river, clothed in black." 

Tennyson's Elaine. 

And the grave-digger in Hamlet sings of being at death 

"... shipp'd intill the land, 
As if I had never been such." 

Act V. Sc. I. 

When King Arthur was about to die, with a mortal 
wound in the head, he was brought by good Sir Bedivere 
to the water's side. 

" And when they were at the water's side, even fast by 
the banke, hoved a little barge with many faire ladies in 
it, and among them all was a queene, and all they had 
blacke hoods, and they wept and shriked when they saw 
King Arthur. ' Now put mee into the barge,' said the 
king; and so hee did softly; and there received him 
three queenes with great mourning, and so these three 



404 The Fortunate Isles, 

queenes set them downe, and in one of their laps King 
Arthur laide his head. And then that queene said, ' Ah ! 
deer brother, why have ye tarried so long from me? 
Alas ! this wound on your head hath taken over much 
cold/ And so then they rowed from the land, and Sir 
Bedivere cried, ^ Ah ! my lord Arthur, what shall become 
of mee now ye goe from me, and leave me here alone 
among mine enemies?* ^Comfort thy selfe,' said King 
Arthur, ' and do as well as thou maiest, for in mee is no 
trust for to trust in ; for I wil into the vale of Avilion for to 
heale me of my greivous wound ; and if thou never heere 
more of mee, pray for my so^le.' But evermore the 
queenes and the ladies wept and shriked that it was pity 
for to heare them. And as soone as Sir Bedivere had lost 
the sight of the barge, he wept and wailed, and so tooke 
the forrest." * 

This fair Avalon — 

" Where falls not hail, or rain, or any snow, 
Nor ever wind blows loudly ; but — lies 
Deep-meadow'd, happy, fair with orchard lawns 
And bowery hollows crown'd with summer sea/' 

is the Isle of the Blessed of the Kelts. Tzetze and Pro- 
copius attempt to localize it, and suppose that the Land 

* La Mort d'Arthure, by Sir Thomas Malory, ed. Wright, 
vol. iii. c. 168. 



The Fortunate Isles, 405 

of Souls is Britain ; but in this they are mistaken ; as also 
are those who think to find Avalon at Glastonbury. Ava- 
lon is the Isle of Apples — a name reminding one of the 
Garden of the Hesperides in the far western seas, with its 
tree of golden apples in the midst. When we are told 
that in the remote Ogygia sleeps Kronos gently, watched 
by Briareus, till the time comes for his awaking, we have 
a Graecized form of the myth of Arthur in Avalon being 
cured of his grievous wound. It need hardly be said that 
the Arthur of romance is actually a demi-god, believed in 
long before the birth of the historic Arthur. This Ogygia, 
says Plutarch, lies due west, beneath the setting sun. 
According to an ancient poem published by M. Ville- 
marqu6, it is a place of enchanting beauty. There youths 
and maidens dance hand in hand on the dewy grass, 
green trees are laden with apples, and behind the woods 
the golden sun dips and rises. A murmuring rill flows 
from a spring in the midst of the island, and thence drink 
the spirits and obtain life with the draught. Joy, song, 
and minstrelsy reign in that blessed region.* There all 
is plenty, and the golden age ever lasts ; cows give their 
milk in such abundance that they fill large ponds at a 
milking. t There, too, is a palace all of glass, floating in 

* Villemarque, Barz. Breiz, i. 193. 
t Mem. de TAcad. Celtique, v. p. 202. 



4o6 The Fortunate Isles, 

air, and receiving within its transparent walls the souls of 
the blessed : it is to this house of glass that Merddin 
Emrys and his nine bards voyage.* To this alludes 
Taliesin in his poem, " The Booty of the Deep," where 
he says, that the valor of Arthur is not retained in the 
glass enclosure. Into this mansion three classes of men 
obtain no admission — ^ the tailors, of whom it takes 
nine to make a man, spending their days sitting, and 
whose hands, though they labor, are white ; the warlocks, 
and the usurers, f 

In popular opinion, this distant isle was far more beau- 
tiful than paradise, and the rumors of its splendor so ex- 
cited the mind of the medisevals, that the western land 
became the subject of satyre and jest. It was nicknamed 
Cocaigne or Schlaraffenland. 

An English poem, "apparently written in the latterM, 
part of the thirteenth century," says Mr. Wright (St. 
Patrick's Purgatory), "which was printed very in- 
accurately by Hickes, from a manuscript which is now 
in the British Museum,*' describes Cocaigne as far away 
out to sea, west of Spain. Slightly modernized it runs 
thus : — 

* Davies, Mythology of the Druids, p. 522. 
t Barz. Breiz, ii. 99. 



The Fortunate Isles, 407 

" Though Paradise be merry and bright, 
Cokaygne is of fairer sight ; 
"What is there in Paradise ? 
Both grass and flower and green ris (boughs). 
Though there be joy and great dute (pleasure), 
There is not meat, but fruit. 
There is not hall, bower, nor bench. 
But water man's thirst to quench.'' 

In Paradise are only two men, Enoch and Ellas ; but 
Cocaigne is full of happy men and women. There is no 
land Hke it under heaven ; it is there always day and 
never night ; there quarrelling and strife are unknown ; 
there no people die ; there falls neither hail, rain, or snow, 
neither is thunder heard there, nor blustering winds — 

** There is a well fair abbaye 
Of white monks and of grey ; 
There both bowers and halls, 
All of pasties be the walls. 
Of flesh, and fish, and rich meat, 
The like fullest that men may eat. 
Floweren cakes be the shingles all, 
Of church, cloister, bower, and hall. 
The pins be fat pudings, 
Rich meat to princes and kings.'' 

The cloister is built of gems and spices, and all about 
are birds merrily singing, ready roasted flying into the 
hungry mouths ; and there are buttered larks and " garlek 
gret plenty." 




4o8 The Fortunate Isles, 

A French poem on this land describes it as a true 
cookery-land, as its nickname implies. All down the 
streets go roasted geese turning themselves ; there is a 
river of wine ; the ladies are all fair ; every month one 
has new clothes. There bubbles up the fountain of 
perpetual youth, which will restore to bloom and vigor 
all who bathe in it, be they ever so old and ugly. 

However much the burlesque poets of the Middle 
Ages might laugh at this mysterious western region of 
blissful souls, it held its own in the belief of the people. 
Curiously enough, the same confusion between Britain 
and Avalon, which was made by Procopius, is still made 
by the German peasantry, who have their Engel-land 
which, through a similarity of name, they indentify with 
England, to which they say, the souls of the dead are 
transported. In this land, according to Teutonic myth- 
ology, which in this point resembles the Keltic, is a glass 
mountain. In like manner the Slaves believe in a para- 
dise for souls wherein is a large apple-orchard, in the 
midst of which rises a glass rock crowned with a golden 
palace ; and in olden times they buried bear's claws 
with the dead, to assist him in climbing the crystal 
mountain.* 

* Mannhardt, Germanische Mythen, 330 et seq. 



I 



The Fortunate Isles, 409 

The mysterious Western Land, in Irish, is called 
Thierna na oge, or the Country of Youth ; and it is 
identified with a city of palaces and minsters sunk be- 
neath the Atlantic, or at the bottom of lakes. 

'* The ancient Greek authors," says M. de Latocnaye 
in his pleasant tour through Ireland, quoted by Crofton 
Croker, '^ and Plato in particular, have recorded a tradi- 
tion of an ancient world. They pretend that an immense 
island, or rather a vast continent, has been swallowed up 
by the sea to the west of Europe. It is more than prob- 
able that the inhabitants of Connemara have never heard 
of Plato or of the Greeks ; nevertheless they have also 
their ancient tradition. ' Our land will reappear some 
day,' say the old men to the young folk, as they lead them 
on a certain day of the year to a mountain-top, and point 
out over the sea to them ; the fishers also on their coasts 
pretend that they see towns and villages at the bottom of 
the water. The' descriptions which they give of this 
imaginary country are as emphatic and exaggerated as 
those of the promised land : milk flows in some of the 
rivulets, others gush with wine ; undoubtedly there are 
also streams of whisky and porter." * 

* Crofton Croker, Fairy Legends of the South of Ireland. 1862, 
p. 165. See also Kennedy, Popular Fictions of the Irish Celts. 
London, 1867. 




41 The Fortunate Isles, 

The subject of cities beneath the water, which appear 
above the waves at dawn on Easter-day, or which can be 
seen by moonHght in the still depths of a lake, is too ex- 
tensive to be considered here, opening up as it does 
questions of mythology which, to be fully discussed, 
would demand a separate paper. Each myth of an- 
tiquity touches other myths with either hand, and it is 
difficult to isolate one for consideration without being 
drawn into the discussion of other articles of belief on 
which it leans, and to which it is united. As in the 
sacred symbol of the Church each member predicates 
that which is to follow, and is a logical consequence of 
that which goes before, so that the excision of one article 
would destroy the completeness, arid dissolve the unity 
of the faith — so, with the sacred beliefs of antiquity, one 
myth is linked to another, and cannot be detached with- 
out breaking into and destroying the harmony of the 
charmed circle. 

But to confine ourselves to two points — the phantom 
western land, and the passage to it. 

" Those who have read the history of the Canaries," 
writes Washington Irving, "may remember the wonders 
told of this enigmatical island. Occasionally it would 
be visible from their shores, stretching away in the 



The Fortunate Isles, 41 1 

clear bright west, to all appearance substantial like 
themselves, and still more beautiful. Expeditions 
would launch forth from the Canaries to explore this 
land of promise. For a time its sun-gilt peaks and long 
shadowy promontories would remain distinctly visible; 
but in proportion as the voyagers approached, peak and 
promontory would gradually fade away, until nothing 
would remain but blue sky above and deep blue water 
below. 

" Hence this mysterious isle was stigmatized by 
ancient cosmographers with the name of Aprositus, or 
the inaccessible. " ^ The natives of the Canaries relate 
of this island, which they name after St. Brandan, the 
following tale. In the early part of the fifteenth cen- 
tury, there arrived in Lisbon an old bewildered pilot of 
the seas, who had been driven by the tempests he 
knew not whither, and raved about an island in the far 
deep, upon which he had landed, and which he had 
found peopled with Christians and adorned with noble 
cities. The inhabitants told him they were descendants 
of a band of Christians who fled from Spain, when that 
country was conquered by the Moslems. They were 

* Washington Irving, Chronicles of Wolfert*s Roost, and other 
Papers. Edinburgh, 1855, p. 312. 



41 2 The Fortunate Isles, 

curious about the state of their fatherland, and grieved 
to hear that the Moslem still held possession of the 
kingdonri of Granada. The old man, on his return to 
his ship, was caught by a tempest, whirled out once 
more to sea, and saw no more of the unknown island. 
This strange story caused no little excitement in Portu- 
gal and Spain. Those well versed in history remem- 
bered to have read that in the time of the conquest of 
Spain, in the eighth century, seven bishops, at the head 
of seven bands of exiles, had fled across the great 
ocean to some distant shores, where they might found 
seven Christian cities, and enjoy their faith unmolested. 
The fate of these wanderers had hitherto remained a 
mystery, and their story had faded from memory ; but 
the report of the old pilot revived the longforgotten 
theme, and it was determined, by the pious and enthusi- 
astic, that this island thus accidentally discovered was 
the identical place of refuge, whither the wandering 
bishops had been guided with their flock by the hand of 
Providence. No one, however, entered into the matter 
with half the zeal of Don Fernando de Alma, a young 
cavalier of high standing in the Portuguese court, and of 
the meek, sanguine, and romantic temperament. The 
Island of the Seven Cities became now the constant 



The Fortunate Isles. 413 

subject of his thoughts by day and of his dreams by 
night ; and he determined to fit out an expedition, and 
set sail in quest of the sainted island. Don loacos II. 
furnished him with a commission, constituting him Ada- 
lantado, or governor, of any country he might discover, 
with the single proviso, that he should bear all the ex- 
penses of the discovery, and pay a tenth of the profits 
to the crown. With two vessels he put out to sea and 
steered for the Canaries — in those days the regions of 
nautical discovery and romance, and the outposts of the 
known world j for as yet Columbus had not crossed the 
ocean. Scarce had they reached those latitudes, than 
they were separated by a violent tempest. For many 
days the caravel of Don Fernando was driven about at 
the mercy of the elements, and the crew were in despair. 
All at once the storm subsided, the ocean sank into a 
calm, the clouds which had veiled the face of heaven 
were suddenly withdrawn, and the tempest-tossed mari- 
ners beheld a fair and mountainous island, emerging, as 
if by enchantment, from the murky gloom. The caravel 
now lay perfectly becalmed off the mouth of a river, on 
the banks of which, about a league off, was descried a 
noble city, with lofty walls and towers, and a protecting 
castle. After a time, a stately barge with sixteen oars 



414 The Fortunate Isles. 

was seen emerging from the river and approaching the 
vessel. Under a silken canopy in the stern sat a richly 
clad cavalier, and over his head was a banner bearing 
the sacred emblem of the cross. When the barge 
reached the caravel, the cavalier stepped on board and, 
in the old Castilian language, welcomed the strangers 
to the Island of the Seven Cities. Don Fernando could 
scarce believe that this was not all a dream. He 
made known his name and the object of his voyage. 
The Grand Chamberlain — such was the title of the 
cavalier from the island — assured him that, as soon as 
his credentials were presented, he would be acknowl- 
edged as the Adalantado of the Seven Cities. In the 
mean time, the day was waning ; the barge was ready to 
convey him to land, and would assuredly bring him 
back. Don Fernando leaped into it after the Grand 
Chamberlain, and was rowed ashore. Every thing 
there bore the stamp of former ages, as if the world had 
suddenly rolled back for several centuries ; and no 
wonder, for the Island of the Seven Cities had been cut 
off from the rest of the world for several hundred years. 
On shore Don Fernando spent an agreeable evening at 
the CQurt-house, and late at night with reluctance he re- 
entered the barge to return to his vessel. The barge 



The Fortunate Isles, 415 

sallied out to sea, but no caravel was to be seen. The 
oarsmen rowed on — their monotonous chant had a 
lulling effect. A drowsy influence crept over Don Fer- 
nando : objects swam before his eyes, and he lost con- 
sciousness. On his recovery, he found himself in a 
strange cabin, surrounded by strangers. Where was he ? 
Oh board a Portuguese ship, bound for Lisbon. How 
had he come there ? He had been taken senseless 
from a wreck drifting about the ocean. The vessel 
arrived in the Tagus, and anchored before the famous 
capital. Don Fernando sprang joyfully on shore, and 
hastened to his ancestral mansion. A strange porter 
opened the door, who knew nothing of him or of his 
jfamily : no people of the name had inhabited the house 
for many a year. He sought the house of his betrothed, 
the Donna Serafina. He beheld her on the balcony; 
then he raised his arms towards her with an exclamation 
of rapture. She cast upon him a look of indignation, 
and hastily retired. He rang at the door; as it was 
opened by the porter, he rushed past, sought the well- 
known chamber, and threw himself at the feet of Sera- 
fina. She started back with affright, and took refuge in 
the arms of a youthful cavalier. 

" What mean you, Senor ? " cried the latter. 



41 6 The Fortunate Isles, 

. " What right have you to ask that question ? " de- 
manded Don Fernando fiercely. 

" The right of an affianced suitor ! " 

" O Serafina ! is this your fidelity? " cried he in a tone 
of agony. 

" Serafina ! What mean you by Serafina, Senor ? This 
lady's name is Maria. '^ 

" What 1 " cried Don Fernando ; " is not this Serafina 
Alvarez, the original of yon portrait which smiles on me 
from the wall?'* 

" Holy Virgin ! " cried the young lady, casting her eyes 
upon the portrait, "he is talking of my great-grand- 
mother ! " 

With this Portuguese legend, which has been charm- 
ingly told by Washington Irving, must be compared the 
adventures of Porsenna, king of Russia, in the sixth 
volume of Dodsley's " Poetical Collection." Porsenna 
was carried off by Zephyr to a distant region, where the 
scenery was enchanting, the flowers ever in bloom, and 
creation put on her fairest guise. There he found a 
princess with whom he spent a few agreeable weeks. 
Being, however, anxious to return to his kingdom, he 
took leave of her, saying that after three months' absence 
his return would be necessary. 



The Fortunate Isles. 417 

** * Three months ! ' replied the fair, ' three months alone I 
Know that three hundred years are rolFd away 
Since at my feet my lovely Phoenix lay.' 

* Three hundred years ! ' re-echoed back the prince : 

* A whole three hundred years completed since 
I landed here ? ' " 

On his return to Russia, he was overtaken by all- 
conquering time, and died. A precisely similar legend 
exists in Ireland. 

In a similar manner Ogier-le-Danois found himself 
unconscious of the lapse of time in Avalon. He was one 
day carried by his steed Papillon along a track of light to 
the mystic Vale of Apples ; there he alighted beside a 
sparkling fountain, around which waved bushes of fragrant 
flowering shrubs. By the fountain stood a beautiful 
maiden, extending to him a golden crown wreathed with 
blossoms. He put it on his head, and at once forgot the 
past : his battles, his love of glory, Charlemagne and his 
preux, died from his memory like a dream. He saw only 
Morgana, and felt no desire other than to sigh through 
eternity at her feet. One day the crown slipped from 
Ogier's head, and fell into the fountain : immediately his 
memory returned, and the thoughts of his friends and 
relatives, and military prowess, troubled his peace of mind. 
He begged Morgana to permit him to return to earth. 

27 



41 8 The Fortunate Isles, 

She consented, and he found that, in the few hours of 
rapture in Avalon, two hundred years had elapsed. 
Charlemagne, Roland, and Oliver were no more. Hugh 
Capet sat on the throne of France, the dynasty of the 
great Charles having come to an end. Ogier found no 
rest in France, and he returned to Avalon, nevermore to 
leave the fay Morgana. , 

In the Portuguese legend, the Island of the Seven 
Cities is unquestionably the land of departed spirits of 
the ancient Celtiberians ; the properties of the old belief 
remain : the barge to conduct the spirit to the shore, the 
gorgeous scenery, and the splendid castle, but the signifi- 
cance of the myth has been lost, and a story of a Spanish 
colony having taken refuge in the far western sea has been 
invented, to account for the Don meeting with those of 
his own race in the phantom isle. 

That the belief in this region was very strong in Ireland, 
about the eleventh century, is certain from its adoption 
into the popular mythology of the Norsemen, under the 
name of Greater Ireland (Ireland hit Mikla). Till the 
ruin of the Norse kingdom in the east of Erin, in the great 
battle of Clontarf (1114), the Norsemen were brought 
much in contact with the Irish, and by this means 
adopted Irish names, such as Nial and Cormac, and Irish 



The Fortunate Isles. 419 

superstitions as well. The name they gave to the Isle 
of the Blessed, in the western seas, was either Great Ire- 
land, because there the Erse tongue was spoken, — it 
being a colony of the souls of the Kelts, — or Hvitra- 
mannaland, because there the inhabitants were robed in 
white. In the mediaeval vision of Owayne the Knight, 
which is simply a fragment of Keltic mythology in a 
Christian garb, the paradise is enclosed by a fair wall, 
'^ whyte and brygth as glass," a reminiscence of the glass- 
palace in Avalon, and the inhabitants of that land — 

" Fayre vest5niientes they hadde on." 

Some of these met him on his first starting on his 
journey, and there were fifteen in long white garments. 

The following passages in the Icelandic chronicles refer 
to this land of mystery and romance. 

" Mar of Holum married Thorkatla, and their son was 
Ari ; he was storm-cast on the White-man's land, which 
some call Great Ireland ; this lies in the Western Sea near 
Vinland the Good (America) : it is called six days' sail 
due west Trom Ireland. Ari could never leave it, and 
there he was baptized. Hrafn, who sailed to Limerick, 
was the first to tell of this j he had spent a long time in 
Limerick in Ireland." 



420 The Fortunate Isles, 

This passage is from the Landnamabok, a work of the 
twelfth century. A turbulent Icelander, named Bjorn of 
Brad wick, vanished from his home. Years after, a native 
of the same island, Gudlief by name, was trading between 
Iceland and Dublin, when, somewhere about the year 
1000, he was caught by a furious gale from the east, and 
driven further in the western seas than he had ever visited 
before. Here he came upon a land well populated, where 
the people spoke the Irish tongue. The crew were taken 
before an assembly of the natives, and would probably 
have been hardly dealt with, had not a tall man ridden 
up, surrounded by an armed band, to whom all bowed the 
knee. This man spoke to GudUef in the Norse tongue, 
and asked him whence he came. On hearing that he 
was an Icelander, he made particular inquiries about the 
residents in the immediate neighborhood of Bradwick, 
and gave Gudlief a ring and a sword, to be taken to 
friends at home. Then he bade him return at once to 
Iceland, and warn his kindred not to seek him in his new 
home. Gudlief put again to sea, and, arriving safely in 
Iceland, related his adventures, concluding that the man 
he had seen was Bjorn of Bradwick.* Another Icelander 
brought away two children from Vinland, and they related 

* Eyrbyggja Saga, c. 64. Hafniae, 1787, p. 329. 



The Fortunate Isles, 42 1 

that near their home was a land, where people walked 
about in flowing white robes, singing processional psalms. 
Northern antiquarians attempt to identify this White-man's 
land with Florida, where they suppose was settled the 
Welsh colony led beyond the sea by Madoc in 11 69. I 
have little doubt that it is simply an Icelandic reminis- 
cence of the popular Irish superstition relative to the Soul 
Island beneath the setting sun. 

" In his crystal ark, 
Whither sail'd Merlin with his band of bards. 
Old Merlin, master of the mystic lore ; 
Belike his crystal ark, instinct with life, 
Obedient to the mighty Master, reach'd 
The Land of the Departed ; there, belike, 
They in the clime of immortality, 
Themselves immortal, drink the gales of bliss 
Which o'er Flathinnis breathe eternal spring, 
Blending whatever odors make the gale 
Of evening sweet, whatever melody 
Charms the wood traveller." 

Southey's Madoc, xi. 

This Flath Innis, the Noble Island, is the Gaelic name 
for the western paradise. Macpherson, in his Introduction 
to the " History of Great Britain," relates a legend which 
agrees with those prevalent among other Keltic peoples. 
In former days there lived in Skerr a Druid of renown. 
He sat with his face to the west on the shore, his eye 



422 The Fortunate Isles. 

following the declining sun, and he blamed the careless 
billows which tumbled between him and the distant Isle 
of Green. One day, as he sat musing on a rock, a storm 
arose on the sea ; a cloud, under whose squally skirts the 
foaming waters tossed, rushed suddenly into the bay, and 
from its dark womb emerged a boat with white sails bent 
to the wind, and banks of gleaming oars on either side. 
But it was destitute of mariners, itself seeming to live and 
move. An unusual terror seized on the aged Druid ; he 
heard a voice call, " Arise, and see the Green Isle of those 
who have passed away ! " Then he entered the vessel. 
Immediately the wind shifted, the cloud enveloped him, 
and in the bosom of the vapor he sailed away. Seven 
days gleamed on him through the mist ; on the eighth, 
the waves rolled violently, the vessel pitched, and darkness 
thickened around him, when suddenly he heard a cry, 
" The Isle ! the Isle ! " The clouds parted before him, 
the waves abated, the wind died away, and the vessel 
rushed into dazzling light. Before his eyes lay the Isle of 
the Departed basking in golden light. Its hills sloped 
green and tufted with beauteous trees to the shore, the 
mountain- tops were enveloped in bright and transparent 
clouds, from which gushed limpid streams, which, wander- 
ing down the steep hill-sides with pleasant harp-like mur- 



The Fortunate Isles. 423 

mur, emptied themselves into the twinkling blue bays. 
The valleys were open and free to the ocean ; trees loaded 
with leaves, which scarcely waved to the light breeze, were 
scattered on the green declivities and rising ground ; all 
was calm and bright ; the pure sun of autumn shone from 
his blue sky on the fields ; he hastened not to the west for 
repose, nor was he seen to rise in the east, but hung as a 
golden lamp, ever illumining the Fortunate Isle. 

There, in radiant halls, dwelt the spirits of the de- 
parted, ever blooming and beautiful, ever laughing and 
gay. : 

It is curious to note how retentive of ancient mytho- 
logic doctrines relative to death are the memories of the 
people. This Keltic fable of the " Land beyond the Sea," 
to which the souls are borne after death, has engrafted 
itself on popular religion in England. The following 
hymn is from the collection of the Sunday School Union, 
and is founded on this venerable Druidic tenet : — 

" Shall we meet beyond the river, 
Where the surges cease to roll, 
Where in all the bright For-ever 
Sorrow ne'er shall press the soul ? 

" Shall we meet in that blest harbor, 
When our stormy voyage is o'er ? 
Shall we meet and cast the anchor 
By the fair celestial shore ? 



424 The Fortunate Isles, 

" Shall we meet with many loved ones. 
Who were torn from our embrace ? 
Shall we listen to tHeir voices, 
And behold them face to face ? '' 

So is a hymn from the Countess of Huntingdon's col- 
lection : — 

" I launch into the deep, 

And leave my native land, 

Where sin lulls all asleep : 
For thee I fain would all resign, 
And sail for heav'n with thee and thine. 

" Come, heav'nly wind, and blow 

A prosp'rous gale of grace, 

To waft from all below 

To heav'n, my destined place : 
There in full sail my port I '11 find, 
And leave the world and sin behind." 

Or I might quote a poem on " The Last Voyage," from 
the Lyra Messianica, which one would have supposed to 
have been founded on the GaeHc legend told by Mac- 
pherson : — 

" On ! on ! through the storm and the billow,* 

By life's chequer'd troubles opprest, 
The rude deck my home and my pillow, 

I sail to the land of the Blest. 
The tempests of darkness confound me, 

Above me the deep waters roll, 
But the arms of sweet Pity surround me, 

And bear up my foundering soul. 



I 



The Fortunate Isles. 425 

** With a wild and mysterious commotion 

The torrent flows, rapid and strong ; 
Towards a mournful and shadowy ocean 

My vessel bounds fiercely along. 
Ye waters of gloom and of sorrow, 

How dread are your tumult and roar ! 
But, on ! for the brilliant to-morrow 

That dawns upon yonder bright shore ! 

** O Pilot, the great and the glorious, 

That sittest in garments so white, 
O'er death and o'er hell * The Victorious,* 

The Way and the Truth and the Light, 
Speak, speak to the darkness appalling, 

And bid the mad turmoil to cease : 
For, hark ! the good Angels are calling 

My soul to the haven of Peace. 

" Now, ended all sighing and sadness, 
The waves of destruction all spent, 
I sing with the children of gladness 
The song of immortal content." 

It would be a study of no ordinary interest to trace 
modern popular Protestantism back to the mythologic 
systems of which it is the resultant. The early Fathers 
erred in regarding the ancient heresies as bastard forms 
of Christianity ; they were distinct religions, feebly tinged 
by contact with the religion of the Cross. In like manner, 
I am satisfied that we make a mistake in considering the 
Dissent of England, especially as manifested in greatest 
intensity in the wilds of Cornwall, Wales, and the eastern 



426 The Fortunate Isles. 

moors of Yorkshire, where the Keltic element is strong, 
as a form of Christianity. It is radically different : its 
framework and nerve is of ancient British origin, passing 
itself off as a spiritual Christianity. 

In St. Peter's, Rome, is a statue of Jupiter, deprived 
of his thunderbolt, which is replaced by the emblematic 
keys. In like manner, much of the religion of the lower 
orders, which we regard as essentially Christian, is ancient 
heathenism, refitted with Christian symbols. The story 
of Jacob's stratagem is reversed : the voice is the elder 
brother's voice, but the hands and the raiment are those 
of the younger. 

I have instanced the belief in angelic music calling 
away the soul as one heathen item in popular Protestant 
mythology — 

" Hark ! they whisper ! Angels say, 
' Sister spirit, come away ! * " 

Another is embodied in the tenet that the souls of the 
departed become angels. In Judaic and Christian doc- 
trine, the angel creation is distinct from that of human 
beings, and a Jew or a Catholic would as little dream of 
confusing the distinct conception of angel and soul as 
of believing in metempsychosis. But not so dissenting 
.religion. According to Druidic dogma, the souls of 



s 

I 



The Fortunate Isles, 427 

the dead were guardians of the living; a belief shared 
with the ancient Indians, who venerated the spirits of 
their ancestry, the Pitris, as watching over and protecting 
them. Thus, the hymn " I want to be an Angel," so 
popular in dissenting schools, is founded on the venerable 
Aryan myth, and therefore of exceeding interest ; but 
Christian it is not. 

Another tenet which militates against Christian doc- 
trine, and has supplanted it in popular belief, is that of 
the transmigration of the soul to bliss immediately on its 
departure from the body. 

The article stantis vel cadentis Fidei^ of the Apostles, 
was the resurrection of the body. If we read the Acts of 
the Apostles and their Epistles with care, it is striking how 
great weight, we find, is laid on this doctrine. They 
went everywhere preaching — i. the rising of Christ ; 2. 
the consequent restoration of the bodies of Christians. 
" If the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised ; and if 
Christ be not raised, your faith is vain. But now is Christ 
risen from the dead, and become the first fruits of them 
that slept. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ 
shall all be made alive." * This was the key-note to the 
:eaching of the Apostles ; it runs through the New Testa- 

* I Cor. XV. 16, 17, 20, 21. 



428 The Fortunate Isles, 

ment, and is reflected in the writings of the Fathers. It ' 
occupies its legitimate position in the Creeds, and the 
Church has never failed to insist upon it with no faltering 
voice. 

But the doctrine of the soul being transported to hea- 
ven, and of its happiness being completed at death, finds 
no place in the Bible or the Liturgies of any branch — 
Greek, Roman, or Anglican — of the Church Catholic. 
Yet this was the tenet of our Keltic forefathers, and it has 
maintained itself in Enghsh Protestantism, so as to divest 
the doctrine of the resurrection of the body of its grasp 
on the popular mind. Among the Kelts, again, reception 
into the sacred inner circle of the illuminated was pre- 
cisely analogous to the received dissenting doctrine of 
conversion. To it are applied, by the bards, terms such 
as " the second birth," ^^ the renewal," which are to this 
day employed by Methodists to designate the mysterious 
process of conversion. 

But to return to the subject of this article. It is a 
singular fact that only the other day I heard of a man in 
Cleveland, being buried two years ago with a candle, a 
penny, and a bottle of wine in his coffin : the candle to ■ 
light him along the road, the penny to pay the ferry, and 
the wine to nourish him, as he went to the New Jerusalem. 



The Fortunate Isles, 429 

I was told this, and this explanation was given me, by 
some rustics who professed to have attended the funeral. 
This looks to me as though the shipping into the other 
land were not regarded merely as a figure of speech, but 
as a reahty. 



®l)e Knigljt of t\)t Qwm^ 

"T T TE rede in the auncient and autentike cronicles 
^ ▼ that sometime ther was a noble king in Lile- 
fort, otherwise named the strong yle, a muche riche 
lande, the which kinge had to name Pieron. And he 
tooke to wife and spouse Matabrunne the doughter of 
an other king puissaunt and riche mervailously." By his j 
wife Matabrune, the king became father of Oriant, 
" the which after the dyscease of his father abode with 
his mother as heir of the realme, whiche he succeded 
and governed peasiabli without to be maried." 

One day King Oriant chased a hart in the forest, and 
lost his way ; exhausted with his ride, he drew rein 
near a fountain which bubbled out from under a mossy 
rock. 

"And there he sat downe under a tree, to the which 
he reined his horse the better to solace and sporte him 
at his owne pleasure. And thus as he was in consola- 
cion there came to him a yonge damoysel moche gre- 



The Knight of the Swan. 43 1 

vous and of noble maintene, named Beatrice, accom- 
panied of a noble knight, and two squires, with iiii 
damoyselles, the which she held in her service and 
famyliarite." 

This Beatrice became the wife of Oriant, much to the 
chagrin of his mother, who had hitherto held rule in the 
palace, and who at once hated her daughter-in-law, and 
determined on her destruction. 

The king had not been married many months before 
war broke out, and he was called from home to head 
his army. Before leaving, he consigned his wife to the 
care of his mother, who promised to guard her with the 
utmost fidelity. " Whan the time limited and ordeined 
of almighti god approched that the noble and goodly 
queue Beatrice should be delivered after the cours of 
nature, the false matrone aforsaid went and delibered 
in herselfe to execute and put in effecte her malignus or 
moste wicked purpose ..... But she comen made 
maners of great welth to the said noble queue Beatrice. 
And sodainly in great paine and traivable of bodye, she 
childed vi sonnes and a faire doughter, at whose birthe 
eche of them brought a chaine of silver about their 
neckes issuing out of their mothers wombe. And whan 
Matabrune saw the vii litle children borne having 



432 The Knight of the Swan, 

echone a chaine of silver at necke, she made them 
lightli and secretli to be borne a side by her chamberer 
of her teaching, and than toke vii Htle dogges that she 
had prepared, and all bloudy laide them under the quene 
in maner as they had issued of her bodye." 

Then Matabrune ordered her squire Marks to take 
the seven children to the river and drown them ; but 
the man, moved by compassion, left them in the forest 
on his cloak, where they were found by a hermit who 
" toke and lapped them tenderly in his mantel and with 
al their chaines at their neckes he bare them into the 
litle hous of his hermitage, and there he warmed and 
sustened them of his poore goodnes as well as he 
coulde/' Of these children, one excelled the others in 
beauty. The pious old man baptized the little babes, 
and called the one who surpassed the others by the 
name Helias. " And whan that they were in the age of 
theyr pleasaunt and fresshe grene yougth thei reane all 
about sporting and playinge in the said forest about the 
trees and floures." 

One day it fell out that a yeoman of Queen Mata- 
brune, whilst chasing in the forest, saw the seven chil- 
dren sitting under a tree eating wild apples, each with a 
silver chain about his neck. Then he told Matabrune 



The Knight of the Swan. 433 

of the marvel he had seen, and she at once concluded 
that these were her grandchildren ; wherefore she bade 
the yeoman take seven fellows with him and slay the 
children. But by the grace of God these men's hearts 
were softened, and, instead of murdering the little ones, 
they robbed them of their silver chains. But they only 
found six children, for the hermit had taken Helias 
with him on a begging excursion. Now, " as soone as 
their chaines were of, they were al transmued in an in- 
staunt in faire white swannes by the divine grace, and 
began to flee in the ayre through the forest, making a 
piteous and lamentable crye." 

Helias grew up with his godfather in the forest. The 
story goes on to relate how that the hermit was told by 
an angel in vision whose the children were ; how a 
false charge was brought against Beatrice, and she was 
about to be executed, when Helias appeared in the lists, 
and by his valor proclaimed her innocence ; and how 
Matabrune's treachery was discovered. 

** But for to returne to the subject of the cronykill of 
the noble Helias knight of the swanne. It is to be 
noted that the said Helias knight of the swanne de- 
manded of Kyng Oriant his father that it wolde please 
him to give him the chaines of silver of his brethern 

28 



434 '■^^^^ Knight of the Swan. 

and sister that the goldesmith had brought. The which 
he delivered him with good herte for to dispose them at 
his pleasure. Than he made an othe and sware that he 
wolde never rest tyll he had so longe sought by pondes 
and stagnes that he had founde his v brethren and his 
sister, which were transmued into swannes. But our 
Lorde that consoleth his freendes in exaltinge their 
good will shewed greatly his vertue. For in the river 
that ranne about the kinges palays appeared visibly the 
swannes before all the people. — And incontinent the 
kynge and the queene descended wyth many lordes, 
knightes, and gentilmen, and came with great diligence 
upon the water syde, for to see the above sayde 
swannes. The king and the queene behelde them pite- 
ousli in weeping for sorrow that they had to se theyr 
poore children so transmued into swannes. And whan 
they saw the good Helias come nere them they began 
to make a mervaylous feast and rejoyced them in the 
water. So he approched upon the brinke : and whan 
they sawe him nere them, they came lightli fawning and 
flickering about him making him chere, and he playned 
lovingly their fethers. After he shewed them the 
chaynes of silver, whereby they set them in good ordre 
before him. And to five of them he remised the 



The Knight of the Swan, 435 

chaynes about their neckes, and sodeynlye they began 
to retourne to theyr propre humayne forme as they were 
before. '^ But unfortunately the sixth chain had been 
melted to form a silver goblet, and therefore one of the 
brothers was unable to regain his human shape. 

Helias spent some time with his father ; but a voice 
within his breast called him to further adventures. 

*' After certayne tyme that the victoryous kynge 
Helyas had posseded the Realme of Lyleforte in good 
peace and tranquilite of justice, it happened on a day 
as he was in his palais looking towarde the river that he 
apperceived the swanne, one of his brethren that was 
not yet tourned into his fourme humayne, for that his 
chaine was molten for to make Matabrune a cup. And 
the sayd swanne was in the water before a ship, the 
which he had led to the wharfe as abiding king Helias. 
And when Helias saw him, he saide in himselfe : Here 
is a signification that God sendeth to me for to shew to 
me that I ought to go by the guyding of this swanne 
into some countrey for to have honour and consolacion. 

" And when Helyas had mekelye taken his leave of 
all his parentes and freendes, he made to bere his ar- 
mures and armes of honoure into the shyppe, with hys 
target and his bright sheelde, of whiche as it is written 



436 The Knight of the Swan, 

the felde was of sylver, and thereon a double crosse of 
golde. So descended anon the sayd Helyas with his 
parentes and freendes, the which came to convey him 
unto the brinke of the water." 

About this time, Otho, Emperor of Germany, held 
court at Neumagen, there to decide between Clarissa, 
Duchess of Bouillon, and the Count of Frankfort, who 
claimed her duchy. It was decided that their right 
should be established by single combat. The Count of 
Frankfort was to appear in person in the lists, whilst 
the duchess was to provide some doughty warrior who 
would do battle for her. 

"Than the good lady as al abasshed loked aboute 
her if there were ony present that in her need wolde 
helpe her. But none wolde medle seynge the case to 
her imposed. Wherefore she committed her to God, 
praying Him humbly to succour her, and reprove the 
injury that wickedly to her was imposed by the sayd 
erle." 

The council broke up, and lords and ladies were 
scattered along the banks of the Meuse. 

" So, as they stray'd, a swan they saw 
Sail stately up and strong, 
And by a silver chain she drew 
A little boat along, 



The Knight of the Swan, 437 

Whose streamer to the gentle breeze 

Long floating, flutter'd light, 
Beneath whose crimson canopy 

There lay reclined a knight. 

" With arching crest and swelling breast 
On sail'd the stately swan, 
And lightly up the parting tide 

The little boat came on. 
And onward to the shore they drew, 

And leapt to land the knight, 
And down the stream the little boat 
Fell soon beyond the sight." 

Southey's Rudiger, 

Of course this knight, who is Helias, fights the Count 
of Frankfort, overcomes him, and wins the heart of the 
daughter of the duchess. Thus HeHas became Duke of 
Bouillon. 

But before marrying the lady, he warned her that if 
she asked his name, he would have to leave her. 

At the end of nine months, the wife of Helias gave 
birth to a daughter, who was named Ydain at the font, 
and who afterwards became the mother of Godfrey de 
Bouillon, King of Jerusalem, and of his brothers Bald- 
win and Eustace. 

One night the wife forgot the injunction of her hus- 
band, and began to ask him his name and kindred. 
Then he rebuked her sorrowfully, and leaving his bed, 



438 The Knight of the Swan. 

bade her farewell. Instantly the swan reappeared on 
the river, drawing the little shallop after it, and uttering 
loud cries to call its brother. So Helias stepped into 
the boat, and the swan swam with it from the sight of 
the sorrowing lady. 

The romance of Helias * continues the story to the 
times of Godfrey de Bouillon, but I shall leave it at this 
point, as it ceases to deal with the myth which is the 
subject of this article. The story is very ancient and 
popular. It is told of Lohengrin, Loherangrin, Salvias, 
and Gerhard the Swan, whilst the lady is Beatrice of 
Cleves, or Else of Brabant. In the twelfth century it 
seems to have localized itself about the Lower Rhine., 

Probably the most ancient mention of the fable is 
that of William of Tyre (1180), who says: ^'We pass 
over, intentionally, the fable of the Swan, although 
many people regard it as a fact, that from it he (God- 
frey de Bouillon) had* his origin, because this story 
seems destitute of truth." Next to him to speak of the 
story is Helinandus (circ. 1220), quoted by Vincent de 
Beauvais : t "In the diocese of Cologne, a famous and 
vast palace overhangs the Rhine, it is called Juvamen. 

* Helyas, the Knight of the Swanne. From the edition of Cop- 
land, reprinted in Thorns : " Early English Prose Romances," 
1858, vol. iii. t Specul. Nat. ii. 127. 



The Knight of the Swan. 439 

Thither when once many princes were assembled, sud- 
denly there came up a skiff, drawn by a swan attached 
to it by a silver chain. Then a strange and unknown 
knight leaped out before all, and the swan returned 
with the boat. The knight afterwards married, and had 
children. At length, when dwelling in this palace, he 
saw the swan return again with the boat and chain : he 
at once re-entered the vessel, and was never seen again ; 
but his progeny remain to this day." 

A genealog}^ of the house of Flanders, in a MS. of 
the thirteenth century, states : " Eustachius venit ad 
Buillon ad domum ducissae, quae uxor erat militis, qui 
vocabatur miles Cigni."^ Jacob van Maerlant (b. 
1235), in his "Spieghel Historiae 1," f alludes to it — 

" Logenaers niesdaet an doen, 
Dat si hem willen tien ane, 
Dat tie ridder metter swane 
Siere moeder vader was. 
No wijf no man, als let vernam 
Ne was noint swane, daer hi af quam 
Als ist dat hem Brabanters beroemen 
Dat si van der Swane sijn coemen/' 

And Nicolaes de Klerc, who wrote in 13 18, thus refers 
to it in his " Brabantine Gests : " " Formerly the Dukes 

♦ Reiffenberg, Le Chevalier au Cygne. BruxelleSj 1846. p. viii. 
t Maerlant, Fig. i. 29. 



440 The Knight of the Swan, 

of Brabant have been much belied in that it is said of 
them that they came with a swan. ^'^ And Jan Velde- 
nar (1480) says: "Now, once upon a time, this noble 
Jungfrau of Cleves was on the banks by Nymwegen, 
and it was clear weather, and she gazed up the Rhine, 
and saw a strange sight : for there came sailing down a 
white swan with a gold chain about its neck, and by 
this it drew a little skiff ....'' — and so on. 

There is an Icelandic saga of Helis, the Knight of 
the Swan, translated from the French by the Monk 
Robert, in 1226. In the Paris royal library is a ro- 
mance upon this subject, consisting of about 30,000 lines, 
begun by a Renax or Renant, and finished by a Gandor 
de Douay. In the British Museum is a volume of 
French romances, containing, among others, " UYstoire 
du Chevalier au Signe," told in not less than 3,000 

lines. 

The "Chevelere Assigne," a shorter poem on the 

same subject, was reprinted by M. Utterson for the 
Roxburghe Club, from a MS. in the Cottonian library, 
which has been quoted by Percy and Warton as an 
early specimen of alliterative versification. It is cer- 
tainly not later than the reign of Henry VI. 

* Von Wyn, Avondstonden, p. 270, 



, The Knight of the Swan. 441 

The next prose romance of Helias is that of Pierre 
Desrey, entitled ** Les faictz et gestes du preux Godsffroy 
de Boulion, aussi plusieurs croniques et histoiresj" 
Paris, without date. " La Genealogie avecques les 
gestes et nobles faitz darmes du tres preux et renomme 
prince Godeffroy de Boulion : et de ses chevalereux 
freres Baudouin et Eustace : yssus et descendus de la 
tres noble et illustre lignee du vertueux Chevalier au 
Cyne;'' Paris, Jean Petit, 1504, also Lyons, 1580. 
This book was partly translated into English, and 
printed by Wynkyn de Worde, " The hystory of Hilyas 
Knight of the Swann, imprynted by Wynkyn de Worde,'' 
&c., 1512 j and in full by Caxton, under the title, "The 
last Siege and Conqueste of Jherusalem, with many 
histories therein comprised;*' Westmester, fol. 1480. 

It is from the first thirty-eight chapters of the French 
" Faits et Gestes," that Robert Copland translated his 
Helias, which he dedicated " to the puyssant and illus- 
trious prynce, lorde Edwarde, duke of Buckynghame," 
because he was lineally descended from the Knight of 
the Swan. This duke was beheaded, May 17th, 152 1. 

We need hardly follow the story in other translations. 

The romance, as we have it, is a compilation of at 
least two distinct myths. The one is that of the Swan- 



442 The Knight of the Swan. 

children, the other of the Swan-knight. The compiler 
of the romance has pieced the first legend to the second, 
in order to explain it. In its original form, the knight 
who came to Neumagen, or Cleves, in the swan-led boat, 
and went away again, was unaccounted for : who he 
w^as, no man knew ; and Heywood, in his " Hierarchies 
of the Blessed Angels," 1635, suggests that he was one 
of the evil spirits called incuhi ; but the romancer 
solved the mystery by prefixing to the story of his mar- 
riage with the duchess a story of transformation, 
similar to that of Fionmala, referred to in the previous 
article. 

We shall put aside the story of the swan-children, and 
confine our attention to the genuine myth. 

The home of the fable was that border-land where 
Germans and Kelts met, where the Nibelungen legqnds 
were brought in contact with the romances of Arthur 
and the Sangreal. 

Lohengrin belongs to the round table ; the hero who 
releases Beatrice of Cleves is called Elias Grail. Pig- 
hius relates that in ancient annals it is recorded that 
Elias came from the blessed land of the earthly para- 
dise, which is called Graele.^ And the name Helias, 
* Hercules Prodicus, Colon. 1609. 



The Knight of the Swan, 443 

Helius, Elis, or Salvius, is but a corruption of the Keltic 
ala, eala, ealadh, a swan. I believe the story of the 
Knight of the Swan to be a myth of local Brabantine 
origin. That it is not the invention of the romancer is 
evident from the variations in the tale, some of which 
we must now consider. 

I. Lohengrin. 

The Duke of Limburg and Brabant died leaving an 
only daughter, Else or Elsam. On his death-bed he 
committed her to the care of Frederick von Telramund, a 
brave knight, who had overcome a dragon in Sweden. 
After the duke's death, Frederick claimed the hand of 
Else, on the plea that it had been promised him ; but 
when she refused it, he appealed to the emperor, 
Henry the Fowler, asking permission to assert his right 
in the lists against any champion Else might select. 

Permission was granted, and the duchess looked in 
vain for a knight who would fight in her cause against 
the redoubted Frederick of Telramund. 

Then, far away, in the sacred temple of the Grail, at 
Montsalvatsch, tolled the bell, untouched by human 
hands, a signal that help was needed. At once Lohen- 
grin, son of Percival, was sent to the rescue, but whither 
to go he knew not. He stood foot in stirrup, ready to 



444 '^^^ Knight of the Swan, 

mount, when a swan appeared on the river drawing a 
ship along. No sooner did Lohengrin behold this, than 
he exclaimed : " Take back the horse to its stable ; I 
will go with the bird whither it shall lead ! '' 

Trusting in God, he took no provision on board. 
After he had been five days on the water, the swan 
caught a fish, ate half, and gave the other half to the 
knight. 

In the mean while the day of ordeal approached, and 
Else fell into despair. But at the hour when the lists 
were opened, there appeared the boat drawn by the 
silver swan ; and in the little vessel lay Lohengrin 
asleep upon his shield. The swan drew the boat to the 
landing, the knight awoke, sprang ashore, and then the 
bird swam away with the vessel. 

Lohengrin^ as soon as he heard the story of the mis- 
fortunes of the Duchess Else, undertook to fight for her. 
The knight of the Grail prevailed, and slew Frederick. , 
Then Else surrendered herself and her duchy to him ; II 
but he would only accept her hand on condition that 
she should not ask his race. For some time they lived 
together happily. One day, in a tournament, he over- 
threw the Duke of Cleves and broke his arm, whereat 
the Duchess of Cleves exclaimed: "This Lohengrin 



The Knight of the Swan, 445 

may be a strong man and a Christian, but who knows 
whence he has sprung ! " These words reached the 
ears of the Duchess of Brabant ; she colored and hung 
her head. 

At night, Lohengrin heard her sobbing. He asked ; 
" My love what ails thee ? " 

She replied : " The Duchess of Cleves has wounded 
me." 

Lohengrin asked no more. 

Next night she wept again ; her husband again asked 
the reason, and received the same answer. 

On the third night she burst forth with : " Husband, 
be not angry, but I must know whence you have 
sprung.'' 

Then Lohengrin told her that his father w^as Percival, ^ 
and that God had sent him from the custody of the 
Grail. And he called his children to him, and said, 
kissing them : " Here are my horn and my sword, keep 
them carefully; and here, my wife, is the ring my 
mother gave me — never part with it." 

Now, at break of day, the swan reappeared on the 
river, drawing the little shallop. Lohengrin re-entered 
the boat, and departed never to return. 

Such is the story in the ancient German poem of 



446 The Knight of the Swan, 

Lohengrin, published by Gorres from a MS. in the 
Vatican ; and in the great Percival of Wolfram von 
Eschenbach, verses 24,614-24,715. 

2. The swan-knight of Conrad von Wiirzburg re- 
sembles Lohengrin and Helias in the outline of the 
story, but no name is given to the hero. He marries 
the daughter of the deceased Duke Gottfried of Bra- 
bant, and fights against ♦the Duke of Saxony. His 
children are the ancestors of the great houses of Gel- 
ders and Cleves, which bear a swan as their arms. 

3. Gerard Swan. 

One day Charlemagne stood at his window overlook- 
ing the Rhine. Then he was ware of a swan floating 
on the water, drawing a boat by a silken band fastened 
round its neck. When the boat came alongside of the 
quay, the swan ceased to row, and the emperor saw 
that a knight armed cap-a-pie sat in the skiff, and round 
his neck hung a ribbon to which was attached a note. 
Navilon (Nibelung), one of the emperor's men, gave 
the stranger his hand to help him out of the bark, and 
conducted him to Charlemagne. The monarch inquired 
of the stranger his name ; for answer he pointed to the 
letter on his breast. This the king read. It stated that 
Gerard Swan sought a wife and lands. 



The Knight of the Swan. 447 

Navilon then unarmed the strange knight, and the 
king gave him a costly mantle. So they went to table. 
But when Roland observed the man, he asked who he 
was. Charlemagne replied, " He is a godsend ; " and 
Roland observed, " He seems to be a man of courage." 
Gerard proved to be a worthy knight ; he served the 
monarch well. He soon learned to talk. The king was 
very fond of him, and gave ffim his sister Adalis in mar- 
riage, and made him Duke of Ardennes.* 

4. Helias. 

In the year 711 lived Beatrice only daughter of Diet- 
rich, Duke of Cleves, at her castle of Nynwegen. One 
bright day she sat at her window looking down the 
Rhine, when she saw a swan drawing a boat by a gold 
chain. In this vessel was Helias. He came ashore, 
won her heart, became Duke of Cleves, and lived 
happily with her for many years. One thing alone in- 
terfered with her happiness : she knew not whence her 
husband came, and he had strictly forbidden her to ask. 
But once she broke his command, and asked him 
whence he had come to her. Then he gave his chil- 
dren his sword, his horn, and his ring, bidding them 

* Northern Chapbooks of the Emperor Charlemagne. Nyerup 
Morskabslasning, p. 90. 



448 The Knight of the Swan, 

never separate or lose these legacies, and entering the 
boat which returned for him, he vanished for ever."* 
One of the towers of Cleves is called, after this event, 
the Swan-tower, and is surmounted by a swan. 

5. Salvius Brabo. 

Gottfried-Carl was King of Tongres, and lived at 
Megen on the Maas. He had a son named Carl-Ynach, 
whom he banished for some misdemeanor. Carl-Ynach 
fled to Rome, where he fell in love with German a, 
daughter of the Proconsul Lucius Julius, and fled with 
her from the eternal city. They took ship to Venice, 
whence they travelled on horseback to Burgundy, and 
reached Cambray. Thence they proceeded to a place 
called Senes, and finding a beautiful valley, they dis- 
mounted to repose. Here a swan, at which one of the 
servants aimed an arrow, took refuge in the arms of 
Germana, who, delighted at the incident, asked Carl- 
Ynach the name of the bird in his native tongue. He 
replied " Swana." " Then," said she, " let me be hence- 
forth called by that name, lest, if I keep my former 
name, I be recognized and parted from thee." 

The lady took the swan with her as they proceeded 
on their journey, and fed it from her hand. 

* Grimm, Deutsche Sagen, 1866, ii. p. 267. 



The Knight of the Swan, 449 

They now reached Florimont, near Biussels, and 
there Carl-Ynach heard that his father was dead. He 
was therefore King of Tongres. Shortly after his 
arrival at Megen, his wife gave birth to a son, whom he 
named Octavian, and next year to a daughter, whom 
they called Swan. Shortly after, Ariovistus, King of 
the Saxones, waged war against Julius Caesar. Carl- 
Ynach united his forces with those of Ariovistus, and 
fell in the battle of Besangon. Swan, his widow, then 
fled with his children and her husband's body to Megen, 
fearing her brother Julius Caesar. There she buried 
Carl-Ynach, and daily fed her swan upon his grave. 

In the Roman army was a hero, Salvius Brabon by 
name, descended from Frankus, son of Hector of Troy. 
Caesar rested at Cleves, and Salvius Brabon amused 
himself with shooting birds in the neighborhood. One 
day he wandered to the banks of the Rhine. On its 
discolored waters swam a snow-white swan, playfully 
pulling at the rope which bound a small skiff to the 
shore. Salvius leaped into the boat, and cast it loose 
from its mooring. Then the bird swam before him as a 
guide, and he rowed after it. On reaching the castle of 
Megen, the swan rose from the water, and flew to the 
grave of Carl-Ynach, where its mistress was wont to 

29 



450 The Knight of the Swan, 

feed it. Salvius pursued it, bow in hand, and was about to 
discharge an arrow, when a window of the castle opened, 
and a lady cried to him in Latin to spare the bird. Sal- 
vius consented ; and casting aside his bow and arrow, en- 
tered the castle. There he learned the story of the lady. 
He hastened to Julius Caesar, and told him that his 
sister was in the neighborhood. The conqueror accom- 
panied Salvius to the castle, and embraced Germana 
with joy. Salvius Brabon then asked the emperor to 
give him the young damsel Swan in marriage, and he 
readily complied with the request, creating him at the 
same time Duke of Brabant ; Octavian took the name 
of Germanicus, and became King of Cologne, and Ton- 
gres exchanged its name for Germania, after the sister 
of the emperor, its queen.^ 

It was in commemoration of the beautiful myth of the 
Swan-knight, that Frederick II. of Brandenburg insti- 
tuted the Order of the Swan, in 1440. The badge was 
a chain from which was suspended an image of the Virgin, 
and underneath that a swan. The badge of the Cleves 
order of knighthood was also a silver swan suspended 
from a gold chain. In 1453, Duke Adolph of Cleves 

* Jehan le Maire, Illustrations de Gaule. Paris, 1548, iii. pp. 
20-23. 



The Knight of the Swan, 45 1 

held a tournament at Lille, "au nom du Chevalier au 
Cygne, serviteur des dames." 

On the 13th May, 1548, the Count of Cleves pre- 
sented the players with a silver swan of considerable 
value. Charles, Duke of Cleves, attempted, in 16 15, to 
revive the order of the swan. When Cleves fell to 
Prussia, the Count de Bar endeavored to persuade 
Frederick the Great to resuscitate the order, but in vain. 
With Anne of Cleves, the white swan passed to our 
tavern signboards. 

The myth is a Belgic religious myth. Just as in the 
Keltic legends of the Fortunate Isles, we hear of mor- 
tals who went by ship to the Avalon of Spirits, and then 
returned to their fellow-mortals ; so in this Belgic fable 
we have a denizen of the distant paradise coming by 
boat to this inhabited land, and leaving it again. 

In the former legends the happy mortal lives in the 
embraces of a divine being in perpetual youth ; in the 
latter, a heavenly being unites himself, for a while, to a 
woman of earth, and becomes the ancestor of an 
aristocracy. 

An Anglo-Saxon story bears some traces of the 
same legend. A ship once arrived on the coast of 
Scandia, without rudder or sail ; in it lay a boy asleep 



452 The Knight of the Swan, 

upon his arms. The natives took and educated him, 
calling him Scild, the son of Sceaf (the skiff). In 
course of time he became their king. In Beowulf, it is 
added that Scild reigned long ; and when he saw that 
he was about to die, he bade his men lay him fully 
armed in a boat, and thrust him out to sea. Among 
the Norse such a practice was not unknown. King 
Haki, when he died, was laid in a ship, the vessel fired, 
and sent out upon the waves. And the same is told of 
Baldur. But the shipping of the dead had no signifi- 
cance in Scandinavian mythology, whilst it was full of 
meaning in that of the Kelts. The Scandinavian Val- 
halla was not situated beyond the Western Sea, but on 
the summit of a great mountain ; whereas the Keltic 
Avalon lay over the blue waters, beneath the setting 
sun. Consequently, I believe the placing of the dead in 
ships to have been a practice imported among the 
Northern and Germanic nations, and not indigenous. 

The classic fable of Helios sailing in his golden 
vessel deserves notice in connection with the myth of 
Helias. That the sun and moon travel in boats of 
silver or gold is an idea common to many mythologies. 
At first sight it seems probable that Helias is identical 
with Helios ; but the difficulty of explaining how this 



The Kfiig'kt of the Swan, 453 

classic deity should have become localized in Brabant 
is insurmountable, and I prefer the derivation of the 
name Helias from the Keltic appellation of the swan. 

The neces^sity of the knight leaving his bride the 
moment she inquired his race connects this story with 
the Grail myth. According to the rules of the order of 
the Sangreal, every knight was bound to return to the 
temple of the order, immediately that any one asked his 
lineage and office. In the popular legend this reason 
does not appear, because the Grail was a genuine 
Keltic myth, with its roots in the mysteries of Druidism. 

Of the different editions of Lohengrin, Helias, and 
the other Swan-knight legends, I will give no list, as 
the principal are referred to in the notes of this article. 




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The To-Morrow of Death ; 

OR, 

THE FUTURE LIFE ACCORDING 
TO SCIENCE. 

By LOUIS FIGUIER, 

TftANSl,A'**KD FROM THB FrsNCH, BY S. R. CrOCKBR. I VoL x6mO. %\ ly 



From the Literary World* 
As its striking, if somewhat sensational title indicates, the book deals with tha 
question of the future life, and purports to present ** a complete theory of Nature, 
a true philosophy of the Universe." It is based on the ascertained facts of science 
which the author marshals in such a multitude, and with such skill, as must com- 
mand the admiration of those who dismiss his theory with a sneer. We doubt if 
the marvels of astronomy have ever had so impressive a presentation in popular 
form as they have here. . . . 

The opening chapters of the book treat of the three elements which compose 
man, — body, soul, and life. The first is not destroyed by death, but simply changes 
Its form ; the last is a force, like light and heat, — a mere state of bodies ; the soul 
*is indestructible and immortal. After death, according to M. Figuier, the soul be- 
comes incarnated in a new body, and makes part of a new being next superior te 
man in the scale of living existences, — the superhuman. This being lives in the 
eiher which surrounds the earth and the other planets, where, endowed with senses 
ftnd faculties like ours, infinitely improved, and many others that we know nothing 
of, he leads a life whose spiritual delights it is impossible for us to imagine. . . • 
Those who enjoy speculations about the future life will find in this book fresh and 
pleasant food for their imaginations ; and, to those who delight in the revelations 
of science as to the mysteries that obscure the origin and the destiny of man, these 
pages offer a gallery of novel and really marvellous views. We may, perhaps, ex- 
pi ess our opinion of "The To-Morrow of Death" at once comprehensively and 
concisely, by sa5ring that to every mind that welcomes light on these grave ques- 
tions, from whatever quarter and in whatever shape it may come, regardless <^ 
precedents and authorities, this work will yield exquisite pleasure. It will shoeii 
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